I dabble, I babble, I travel...

The race...

2012-02-09T12:11:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been a whirlwind since getting BACK from CX Nationals and I'm JUST now getting a chance to sit down and write it out.
We'll see how clearly my memory is of the actual race.

We made the drive back quicker than the drive out, and were home by Tuesday with Wednesday to rest and hang out at the house. A much needed day of, well, nothing.

To the gritty:
As my brother commented (who doesn't race at all) "You would have had a better day if you didn't start in the hotel lobby."
And why the hotel lobby was 30 some odd miles from the start, it is a fairly accurate description of my starting position in the grid.
I knew going into the day that I was going to be starting far back, and I would have my work cut out for me. But man, it was DAUNTING looking at all the helmets in front of me.
I think I lost 30 seconds before I even crossed the finish line.

From the waaaaay back

All that said, I had a great start. I spent most of my warm-up riding and re-riding the first 1/4 of the lap before the first climb because it was the place I was most likely to make-up ground early and quickly. I was practicing all the outside and shitty lines that you would never CHOOSE to take, unless it meant passing 10 guys.
And what do you know, it worked.
After a lap I as up to the mid 50s.
Note the skaters in the background
And I was ON THE GAS. Somewhere on the internet, Adam Myerson gave Jeremy Durrin the advice to "Ride each lap like it's your last." while he was over in Europe.
I put that theory to good use while in Madison. I was riding myself inside out for the first 3 laps, and jumping in the gas ever possible chance.
I was passing guys on downhills, through slick, rutted, icy corners, and charging up every hill. Trying to outrun the reaper.
I bombarded my way through the 40s and was creeping into the 30s.
There was some local guy behind me, and he had a TON of support all around the course, which helped fuel my fire as well. Had to beat the local guy.
NECX was also out in force at nationals and there was great support around the course. Not to mention knowing that my wife, mom and step-father were all there in support of my nationals campaign.

Early in the day, I made the decision to change my tires to Challenge Fangos instead of the Limus as the wind was picking up, the sun was out, and the course was steadily drying out, while maintaining hidden patches of ice.
At the last minute I brought the Grifos over to the pit to put on the B bike as well.
Only did one lap on the pit bike
Which turned out to be a good decision as well.
Ben Coleman and Ryan Kelly were a HUGE help in the pit. I only needed to pit once when the rear der stopped shifting correctly, but the two changes I made were fast and smooth.
They also had some choice heckles for me while I slogged my way through the only long mud pit which was conveniently located in front of the pit.

I finished off the day 32nd, getting pulled with 3 laps to go, which was an unfortunate end. Realistically though, I was really happy with having passed 60 of America's best CXers (even though we all know the BEST live here in NE). I rode the best race I could have, minimized any, if not all, mistakes, and kept throttling and pulling back places the entire race.
With a better starting position...

After the race, I went back to the car solo, reflected one what just happened and headed up the hill to find my family and enjoy a much deserved beer. And Mexican Coke.
Mr. and Mrs. King of the Apples

All in all, it was a great trip. We'll be back next year, when I'm sure we'll get hammered with 4 feet of snow and sub zero temperatures. Oh well.

The long road to CX Nationals

2012-01-15T13:36:00.010-05:00

Last time, I had just finished off what was to be the last block of local races.
That is, until I started toting the idea of having a local bandit race here in our Burlington, VT back yard on New Years Day.
With the help of Bobby from 1K2GO and prizes and fuel supplied by Narragansett we had the first annual Frost Cross CX race in Ethan Allen Park on New Year's Day.

The idea was two fold really. 1) I needed to get some kind of race like effort in the week before headed out out to Madison, WI. And 2) It was going to be a lot of fun.
We had a Doom Ramp

It was a blast, and we had a healthy turn-out of 15 or so racers, some of which had done the First Run 5K race earlier that day. Jamey Driscol came out and took the victory, with myself following on the 2nd step of the podium and Bobby Bailey of 1K2GO rounding out the bottom step.
Amy Miner, also of 1K2GO was the winner of the women's category. And Dave Connery ALSO of 1K2GO (noticing a trend) took home the honors of first finisher in the Hoogerland category for running First Run in pink hoody-footy and then finishing 4th at Frost Cross

Fast forward a bit, and it was Wednesday 1/4/12 and Ali and I are in the Element, packed, locked, and loaded and pulling out of the drive-way at 6:30am.
Loaded up
We had AMAZING weather for driving most of the way across the country, and I'm really grateful that it worked out as well as it did.
Early in the morning the steam rises off the lakes in NY.

And we made a pact along the way that there would be no bull. Except this one:

We were making great time to Cleveland, so I suggested a detour of to Niagra Falls, which I had never seen. It was a rather spectacular setting in the dead of winter.
Don't slip!

Wednesday night we made it to Cleveland, where stayed a little ways south of the city, and nothing terribly eventful took place. We rolled into town around 6:00, got cleaned up and headed out to find dinner. I rode the trainer, and day 1 was in the books.
Thursday was to be Hippo-Quarium day at the Toledo Zoo. So I rode the trainer first thing in the morning, we tracked down breakfast and we were on our way. As you might imagine, the zoo is not the busiest place to go in the middle of January. But we were going!
Hippo Archway
Hippos behind glass and under water
Unfortunately, being the off-season, the hippoquarium was open, but not entirely. The hippos themselves were hanging out inside in the warm water and we never saw them in full view. But that are BIG!
Juvenile elephant

This ugly dude was just hanging out

And then we were off! We stopped for lunch in downtown Toledo, which had a really nice vibe to it and ate lunch at Grumpy's. Which was superb! And then continued are easy drive schedule to Chicago to meet up with Stevie.
We rested up for a short bit and then began our trek across town to Blackbird. Where Mrs. KOA had Lobster/carrots/coffee and I had Striploin/escargot/persimmon. Our appetizer were Suckling pig and baby squid. Everything was out of this world amazing.
Later we stopped off for a cocktail at The Violet Hour. Good luck finding it, if you go. Just look for the mural.
A quick stop at Second City, where Stevie works, and it was a night!
The next day, we had the easiest schedule yet. We woke up late, got breakfast at Orange when I spotted these in a window.
Plush Sushi!
We met a friend for lunch near Millenium Park and walked a bit of the Magnificent Mile before jumping in the Element and making the last 150 mile push up to Madison, WI.

After checking in and the like, we found ourselves down town, hungry and looking at a 45 minute wait the restaurant we had decided to check out. Hmph.
Walking down the street, someone from the COG art show, asked if we were looking for the show. No, no sir, just dinner. He recommended Great Dane Brewery which turned out to be a great option, and come to find later, one of the major sponsors for CX Nationals.
We called it an early night, and after delivering Ben Coleman his two bikes, headed back to the hotel to relax.
Saturday morning I was up early, mind turning over with what I needed to do, and how the next 48 hours were going to unfold.
But first, we needed coffee and breakfast. We made our way over to Cool Beans which was next door to the Christien Book store that was having a bible sale.
A baguette with butter and jam and a coffee would get the day rolling. I dropped Mrs. KOA back off at the hotel and I headed out to Badger Prairie Park for my first laps on the nationals course.
I was surprised by the amount of mud I found. And even more surprised when I continued lowering my tire pressure until I had 18 and 20 PSI front/rear. I have never run them that low, but the traction was great. The course had a lot of elevation change and mud and hidden ice it was SLOW. Challenge Limus was the tire of choice and a god one at that. I rode the course for 40ish minutes, crashing on my last pre-ride lap in front of Justin Lindine who thankfully DID NOT run into my head. A short spin down the bike bath, and running/mounting/dismounting practice and my riding for the day was done. I watched the start of one of the races to get a feel for it and headed back to the hotel.
Showered, refreshed, and ready for dinner. We met up with my mom and her husband at a this amazing Italian place in downtown Madison that is in an old church. Complete with stained glass windows. It was called Bellini's If you want a great Italian meal, and enjoy the company you're with, it's a fantastic choice. If you're in a hurry, forget it.

Part 2 coming soon.
Starting in the hotel lobby.

That winter time rollercoaster

2011-12-12T20:44:00.007-05:00

I have a knack of coming around at the end of the season, whether it's road, or cross or whatever else there is. When it gets to be crunch time, I always feel more comfortable turning the screws a little harder.
Or maybe it's the realization that I haven't produced a "result" up until that point.
Or that everything is coming to a close and everyone always remembers that last weekend. We always joke that no one ever remembers who won in April. And know what... I don't remember.

Also, folks, Ali and I have officially been married for over 2 months now, and it's still super awesome.
She's accompanying me on the drive out to Madison, Wisconsin for CX Nationals, and we're planning on stopping at the Hippoquarium in Cleveland, OH!

In a nut shell, one of my major objectives for this cyclocross season was to finish at least one UCI race in the top 10. In what is arguably the most hotly contested elite field in the entire country, getting a top 10 in New England is rather notable. More importantly, it means you earn UCI points, which GUARANTEE better starting position than pulling a random number out of a box. The earlier races I was relying on a little bit of luck and a little bit of fitness. These last couple though, I was specifically targeting.
I wrote my last post actually a day after one of the races I had been targeting.

That day... November 27th, 2011 was the day. Cyclocross is an intense study in putting all the pieces together and doing it as efficiently as possible. You need to have an aggressive and FAST start, you need to clip-in, shift into the correct gear, not get crashed by someone else, and not crash yourself.
Prior to that, you need to have arrived on time, brought the correct clothing, warmed up correctly, stopped eating 3 hours prior to the start, ate ENOUGH at that point, and ate the right thing.
Prior to that, you have to have slept well, trained well, kept life in order, completed your job. And if all of these pieces come together, and you make it through the start and the first 8 minutes of the race, THEN you've still got 52 minutes to make sure you pull it all together.
That next block of time, your BIKE needs to be completely dialed, hope you chose the correct tires for the conditions, still not get crashed by anyone else and keep yourself upright.
And on 11/27/11, ALL of those pieces DID come together. The kind of day when if you want to go faster, you simply shift to a higher gear.
There were three laps left in the race, somewhere around 20 minutes, I was in a group of 6 and we were only 10 seconds of the duo that made up 9th and 10th. Remember that goal of finishing top ten?
There is was, right in front of me, and I had 20 minutes to make it happen. 20 minutes is an eternity, and yet sometimes, it's not NEARLY enough time.

And on an off-camber section, the lights went out. Not dimmer, not turned down a notch, completely out. Snuffed out. Peeled the rear tire off the rim. (My review of tubeless cyclocross tires is forth coming...)
And the discerning eye can see here (below), that my rear tire was LOW on pressure and it was only a matter of time.
Turning!

Here's a video of Adam Myerson summing up how I felt that day:Really Upset
And I get it, it's JUST bike racing... I know that.
That day, like most races, it's about over coming.
I overcame my crappy starting position.
I overcame my handlebars slipping on the very bumpy descent.
I overcame some bobbles in front of me.
And then I was getting ready to overcome that 10 second gap... but I couldn't overcome that flat.
I ran for well over a mile to the pit and ended up being pulled from the race.
Crushing defeat.

But I wanted to rally! I had ONE MORE chance to finish in the top ten before the UCI races I'd be getting to would be over. And it was on my favorite course, and promoted by my favorite bike shop, NBX
And after a whirlwind work trip that took me from Burlington, VT to Plymouth, NH to Freeport, ME to Providence, RI to East Greenwich, RI, I was still READY. (A short video of this trip MAY surface) The pieces didn't come together as smoothly as the week before, but I was ready to make it happen.
Fast forward to the starting grid and I was 3rd row, one spot in from the edge. Game time.
I had the best start of the season, jumping up to 9th into the first corner and staying top 15 out of the beach run.
And while I faded back a little bit after the first 2 laps that were BLISTERING fast, my bike failed. And in a completely unexpected way.
Laaaayyyyy back
In case you're wondering, the seatpost is supposed to be straight.
I had to ride over 1/2 lap with the bike like that, standing the entire time, until I could pit for the 2nd bike. Needless to say, the wind was gone from my sails and I was far back.
From really high, to really low, in 60 minutes or less.

A word about the frame, I always strongly encourage BMC to push the envelope of what we know will work, and what we THINK will work. Well, turns out this time around, we were wrong.
The bike is completely repaired and reinforced and back together and I rode it this past Saturday.

This past Saturday was a low priority, high fun event, at the Ice Weasels Cometh in MA. I'm still trying to understand why, but I became terribly sick to my stomach during the race and had to stop.
I felt so ill, I had to refuse free Harpoon IPA. It was HOURS before I felt even remotely ready to eat. And I was driving home solo. Gross.

So as far as I can tell, coming into the last two races of the year: The New England Cyclocross Championships and then the big show in Madison, Wisconsin the National Championships of Cyclocross. I have exercised all my racing demons.
I ruined a race due to a flat.
I ruined a race due to a broke frame.
I ruined a race due to illness.

I'm ready.

And so I'll leave you with this video...
Of a giant boot.

Thanks again for all the support and if you're in VT for New Year's get in touch for "First Cross", happening New Year's Day.

That time of year...

2011-11-28T18:00:00.012-05:00

Let me tell you, that being an elite cyclist is no easy task. As an individual it's a rather selfish activity and it takes an incredible amount of support from friends and family to be anything anywhere near successful.
So for those of you reading this blog.
Thank you.
My wife and partner in crime has incredible patience and I'm am extremely fortunate to have married her.
The A-Team

Before Mrs. King of the Apples had to deal with my mess and assortment of equipment, or what I like to simply call the "St. Germain Service Course". My parents had that honor. To this date I think my mom has only seen a small number of races, but was on hand to see me win the New England Crit Championships down at Ninnigret all those years ago. And my dad drove me to more than a couple of events in Maine and Massachusetts as a junior.
His name isn't really Ned
My mom takes great photos, but is terrible about posting them online, someone else please encourage her.

And of course, since this is a bike racing blog, we need to call out the sponsors:
Circle A Cycles

Ride for the Fun of it!

And of course my coach, mentor and good friend:
Kyle Wolfe

Little known fact, because Lindine just started using the internet. But Kyle Wolfe is ALSO Justin Lindine's coach.
Contact him to get faster and race smarter: FinishFast
And Matt Colby, Whiskey Dog's owner, for being a top notch pit and road crew.

And there are countless other folks who I need to thank for their kindness, for their support, and for their inspiration. But we will leave at this short concise list for right now.
Again, thank you.
And a few photos of good times and good people.

Mem
Scott and I in Colorado
One bad apple...
Aagghhhh!
Ryan and I at Fenway

DownEast CX in Maine 2011. MUD

Myself, Brian Chapman of Circle A Cycles and Kipp Bradford

24 Hours of Great Glen Overall winner with Shawn Mottram, Justin Lindine, Bobby Stine and support by Kyle Wolfe 2010

Fitchburg Longsjo Stage Race Crit 2008

S'Mores at my wedding! With Jay, Bill Sullivan, and Kyle

Great coffee

So many pies! Thanksgiving 2011

The coveted Narragansett Beer Hoody. From Bo Fest 2011

Top step! Bo Fest 2011

Lazy Saturday gentlemens' ride. 2011

Perfect

Action packed!

2011-11-15T21:00:00.003-05:00

If I back up for a moment and think about the races and events that have taken place since my last post... it's been a complete blur, as you might imagine.

After the Providence cross weekend I feel like everything was pretty flat out and busy, which is good.

I headed down to Troy, NY for the only NYCROSS race that I have done this year and felt really nervous in the parking lot. I'm not sure why really. More nervous than usual.
The NYCROSS races are smaller, and the fields are nearly as deep, but when I race, I race to win, so the end goal is always the same.
The micro report goes something like:
Poor start, rallied back, bridged to lead group, 2 guys broke off leading group, raced in 3rd/4th for awhile, caught guy in 2nd, and raced in 2nd for awhile and battled Cory Burns for 2nd/3rd. Cory is stronger than me, but can't turn to save his life. So it was a strangly fair match. In the end though, he managed to get one over on me, and I wonder if somewhere in my head I "settled" fr 3rd. It didn't feel like it at the time, but after the race, I didn't feel completely satisfied. But hey, getting on the podium is great!

Then there was a rest day in there somewhere... I think?

Following this, Matt and I headed up to Maine for the DownEast CX weekend, and I wish I had taken pictures, which if I find some on the camera or phone later, I doubt they will do it justice. The mud was unlike anything I have ever seen. Really, at a loss to describe this mud.
Matt Colby, and Bobby Stine (NBX) and Wacko were a HUGE help in the pit that day. I wouldn't have finished without them. I was pitting and getting a bike change every lap, or half a lap. At the end of the day, I think the might must have weighed something north of 35 lbs. In the end, nearly half of the field fell to broken bikes, or just immense fatigue and I finished 16th. It was strictly a matter of keeping the bike moving forward, not fast, just forward.
Day 2 went a little better, much LESS mud, and I was able to grab 15th.

I'm trying to hurry through all these reports so I can feel up to date.

Next up was the CycleSmart International in Northampton, MA which never disappoints. Mrs. King of the Apples and I travelled down on Friday night and stayed at a great bed and breakfast Friday and Saturday, relaxing and spending time in NoHo. It was fantastic.
The racing, was not fantastic.
Day 1: I accidently brought my sally horse to the race, and DNFed. At 40 minutes. Everyone kept asking me where I flatted. I told them in my heart.
I just didn't have it that day. I don't really know what was wrong, or what went wrong, but I just didn't have the edge on my fighting blade. So I sulked away.
For your future reference, it's always better to DNF on the first day, because you can avenge your spirit on the 2nd day. This will be my only DNF of the season FYI.
Day 2, the course didn't necessarily play to my strengths, but it wasn't a total loss. I started last row, and within the first lap had jumped up to 25th (ish) and was only a few second off a BIG group that could mean my bridge to the top 10.
At the top of the large descent on the course on lap 2, I was going for it, and well... it didn't quite work out.
Watch here. (1:50)

Watch more video of Cycle-Smart International Cyclocross 2011 on cyclingdirt.org

The chain was jammed on the rear wheel, and grass was jamming the rear shifter/brake lever and the front was going flat.
So, I pitted, and battled my way through no man's land to finish 34th. A hard earned 34th. Left all out there that day, but I rode well and had washed away the mistake of dropping out the day before.

And then a few days ago, was the VT State Championships at West Hill Shop in Putney, VT.
Last year, while racing the 3s all year, I rode the P123 at Putney, and finished as first Vermonter to be State Champ. Though I was 11th in the race.
This year, I wanted to defend my crown, and take home a W on home turf. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not disappointed to not have won on Sunday. I definitely am.
But, it wasn't in the cards.
I had a great start, getting 2nd on the hole shot and getting ready to assume the lead when I crashed going into some barriers.
I remounted and found myself in 10th.
Holy shit.
I hopped on my motor bike and started bridging gaps like the Golden Gate Bridge.
I made my way to 5th, and was only 5 seconds off the leading quad when I flatted the front tire.
This dropped me back to 6th, and nearly a minute off the leading quad.
Back on the motor bike.
One guy got dropped from the leading quad and I was able to reel him in, and shut the gap down a bit, but it was a bridge to far and I would have to take 4th. Sadly, this put me behind Sheldon Miller and I was the 2nd Vermonter.

Now... if it rains tomorrow night for the NBX under the lights race, there is a curse on me a attending. And I won't stand for it! So let's do work!

Under the lights!

2011-10-12T08:04:00.002-05:00

A quick note.
On Friday, Bobby Bailey of 1K2GoSports decided it would be really fun to have a Monday night Cyclocross "practice".

It wasn't a race, it was truly a practice, and all sorts of different folks showed up, on CX bikes, on mt bikes, in giant diesel trucks, families with kids. And it was awesome!
There was a raffle, grilled cheeses, and even This Guy on hand to cheer people on and heckle appropriately.

Here's my favorite photo from the night, during the raffle, in the dark.

Back in the saddle

2011-10-10T12:53:00.002-05:00

What a week!
Being married rules! Really, Mrs. (officially) King of the Apples and I had an incredible time at the wedding (THANK YOU!) and then found some great weather in the Catskill Mountains of New York exploring the trails and eating incredible food. It. Was. Fantastic!

To the bike racing.
As you might imagine, I didn't really train so much over the last week, as I was busy with Mrs. King of the Apples. And it was great!
So, coming into this weekend, I was sure that 1) I would be well rested 2) My legs wouldn't be very snappy from not riding for a week 3) It was going to be FAST, as the Providence CX weekends always is.

I hadn't planned on racing on Saturday, as I was working an event in Northboro, MA at EMS. If anyone lives out that way, they just opened a new location at a mega shopping plaza at Northboro Crossing. As it turned out, 80 degree sunny days in October make folks get outside, and not shopping, so I left a little early and hustled down to Providence to try and register for the Saturday race day off.
Turns out, you can't do that when it's a C1 race. Oh well.
As it would turn out, it was a great race to watch, as Justin Lindine stormed away with his first ever UCI C1 victory. Saying stormed is fairly accurate as it was a giant race for 2nd and the gap to Justin was monumental in cross terms.

This is what it looks like to win that big, alone.
This is how much fun it is, win that big, alone.

The NBX gang was in full force on Sunday, and I would have been socializing more and getting more photos, but as it was 85 degrees and blazing sun, my responsibilities stopped at finding shape and drinking water. I got up to move my chair into the shade when the sun moved. Sitting in the shade did mean I missed this. That's Matt Bodziony (NBX bike shop owner, father, husband and UCI CX race promoter, what's your excuse?) hopping the MAN-SIZED barriers.
As I haven't cracked the top 10 at a UCI race yet, and I was having way too much fun last weekend to go to the Gloucester Gran Prix races, I am still drawing a random number for my start position. This is good and bad. Good in the sense that I might get a decent starting position. Bad in that if I pull a high number, my race is more than likely F-ed. Notice that F is capitalized.
Sunday, I pulled 66, this put me in the dead last row. There were 71 starters.
The start, was 1000m of pavement, starting with a slight uphill and then ending with a 180 degree turn over a curb and into the grass.
To summarize, it was HARD.
Just how far back I started, 14th photo See those handful of guys behind me? That's the end of the race. Time to do work!
I went into blitzkrieg mode and advanced in every spot I saw even a glimmer of possibility. This worked almost flawlessly. Needless to say, I didn't make friends.

A couple laps in and I was more than half way through the field, and riding my bike in a darkening tunnel. Tunnel vision.
I was less than 10 seconds off the group that was going to get me in the money and secure another top 20 finish. Let's do this!
Turns out, let's not do that. I had to ease off the gas, I was passed by a guy or two and then some reshuffling occurred.
I found my self in no mans land, with a large group barreling toward me from behind and with that money making group just ahead.
After taking on more water in the feed zone (high five to Matt Colby), I gave it everything to get up to the group, taking larger risks the corners and continuing to ride the 2-set of stairs on the far side of the course.
It wasn't in the cards. Two riders came up to me, who you may recognize in the form of Johannes Husebey.
It seemed that they either had no interest in getting to the next group, or they didn't have the legs, but regardless, there was no help to had.
I tried twice with massive attacks to get them off my wheel, but they shut down the attacks, until a little while later when I distanced myself.
It was a hard last lap with a group of 5 coming up to me quickly, including Donny Green. One of them snuck by me in the barrier section and I wasn't able to close it before the finish, nabbing me a 30th place result.

It was a good, hard day, and I look forward to not having to race in that kind of heat any time soon.

Here's a short video of Justin crossing the line and his post race interview.
Winning!

Into the night...

2011-09-29T09:25:00.002-05:00

I told Stine I would write a blog about Wednesday races, or mid-week races in general, like this one NBX Under the Lights. But that post will have to wait, until Stine gets me some photos.

Here's the thing about racing during the week: It's dark.

Driving home last night I was thinking about sporting events that happen under the lights, and I couldn't come up with too many. Crits, baseball games, football and other stadium sports. What makes cyclocross under the lights really unique as that it's dark. I mean, questionably dark. Stadiums and crits held on city streets are intended to be lit at night for things moving at speed. It's part of the design. Fairgrounds and city parks and the like are not, and that's what makes it so much fun.
What's that line by Presidents of the United States of America, "Navigating aspects completely by feel..." Or something along those lines.
But that's what it's like, point, shoot and let the bike go where it might. Which is how my night ended prematurely last night at the Midnight Ride.

First, check out this video of Shawn Mottram at the Midnight Ride in the Single Speed race.

My race:
Lined up second row, had a good start and got into the tight turny, serpentine course hover just outside of the top 10. This was a smaller event, so they were only paying 10 deep. Time to do work!
I was turning well, and turning was going to play a huge factor in tonight race, as the course was not technical at all. The barriers (a triple set!) were also at 20+ MPH, which is not my strong suit, little legs move slower.
After maintaining my position through the first lap, I was settling in, and getting ready to out turn some other dudes.
Well, coming through the wood chip section (really, wood chips, very soft wood chips) I stacked it and went over the bars and dropped my chain. Don't panic! (I panicked, a little) got the chain back on, and off I went. Raging my way back through the guys that had passed me.
A couple laps later I was leap frogging back through the small groups and was nearing the top 10 with 2.5 laps to go. The bike was not behaving well and was shifting like a drunk trucker.
But I was getting there.
A little over two laps to go I was in the midst of bridging to the end of the next of the next group that would land me in the top ten. Let's do this!
And that's when I stacked it, again. And much harder. I slid across the grass and into a stake on the side of the course. I managed to not get run over by Boloco guy (thanks!), so that was a plus.
Getting up slowly, I did the quick math, knew I was out of the money and knew I was going to kill myself to get back to the top 10, which meant taking bigger risks. And while normally taking bigger risks is fine, with the wedding just over the horizon, I took the gentlemen's exit and dropped out.
Other races and spectators alike asked if I was ok, which is why this New England cycling community is amazing. We might be trying steal each others lunch money, but at the end of the day, we're still looking out for each other.
I was physically fine. Mildly frustrated and ready to get home.

So, last night kicked off the start of the Holy Week of Cyclocross here in New England which some 6 or 7 races in 12 days. The run down is:
Midnight Ride of Cyclocross (last night)
Grand Prix of Gloucester (this weekend)
Night Weasels (Next Wednesday)
Providence Cyclocross Fest (October 8,9)

Look for my smiling and newly married face to be toeing the line on Sunday October 9th in Providence, with a small chance of a Saturday start.

Time to do work!

Full swing...

2011-09-26T14:57:00.004-05:00

Well, what a week we have here!
It's Mrs. King of the Apples birthday today, woot! Future brother-in-law-man flies in from Chicago this afternoon. Wedding practice happens Friday and then the real deal takes place on Saturday.
Other folks we know will be headed to Gloucester for the big ol' CX weekend, but you know what, they're probably not going to win. I am definitely going to win this weekend.
Mrs. King of the Apples and I are VERY excited for the weekend and are looking forward to seeing our friends and family from near and far.
All we need is for the weather to get it's act together, but I'm feeling optimistic about it.

In racing news:
You should head to MA tomorrow evening for the Midnight (really 8:00pm) Ride of Cyclocross It should be a good time. Actually, a great time. Any time there is a CX race at night under the lights, you know it's going to be amazing.

This pas weekend, we had the EMS NorEaster Festival in town which just so happened to include another UCI C2 cyclocross race. Convenient doesn't even begin to describe the last three race locations.
Let's just say... it was muddy. Let's also quietly encourage BMC to finish up the 2nd bike so pitting will actually be an option. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that the bike gained 10 pounds by the finish. Honest. See photos at bottom. Unfortunately, none of the bike.
So, in the last 3 Elite CX races, two of which have been UCI, I have finished inside the top 20 and always in the money. This is an exciting trend and one that I am eager to continue. It was honestly so muddy that after hosing off and then soaking in OXYclean and THEN washing, I'm not sure my NBX skinsuit will ever look the same again. In fact, let's just say it won't.
How the race shook-out:
Riders without UCI points (like myself) pull a number out of a hat (box) and that determines your starting order. Kind of archaic, but also pretty fair. I pulled 23. This is good. The lower the better.
However, in this race, with such a deep field, it meant that there were A LOT of guys with UCI points, so I was still 4th row. Due to the INSANE amount of mud, I start conservatively, in the event that there was a big pile-up I wouldn't get swamped. There was no big pile-up, save for a freak crash ON THE PAVEMENT 100m off the start line. I avoided this.
After that, it was a matter of keeping the bike moving forward in any way possible. Running, pushing, carrying, riding, whatever. The average speed was under 9 MPH for the 60 minute race. Brutal. The lack of being able to pit put me a little behind the 8 ball, but it was a matter of moving forward either way. For the majority of the race I has ahead of Ted King. Yes, THE Ted King, the same guy that has finished the Giro, and a host of other ProTour races. Real deal. Eventually he caught me, and I hung with him for a little while, until the straight away where it seemed he was a motorbike. He only had 1 bike as well.
I moved as far up as 17th at one point, but a poorly timed crashed in the last half of the last lap shuffled me back behind Manny Goguen and Sylvain Jean. The fact that the Race Predictor has me finishing much further back than I have been is pretty awesome. Lots more to come!

For those flat landers reading, head to Roger Williams Park on Sunday 10/9 for some more UCI CX action.
For those unsure of just what cyclocross (CX) is all about, here is a link to a sure and enlightening article written by Adam Myerson: Why I Race Cyclocross.

I heard through the wire that Mean Lindine continues to slay all (most) comers this CX season. Rising to the occasion and netting top 5s at nearly every race he's been at. Sometimes with only 1 pedal.

Matt Colby, newly minted CX addict made a good showing on home soil this past Saturday winning the hole-shot and gapping the field in the first half a lap. After a crash and some bobbling, he hung on for 10th. He got bested at the line by 3 guys, but it was clear he was laying it all out there. In his first, real, CX season he is looking poised to pull in a W or two before the season is out.
Look for his green Skirack kit and handle-bar mustache at a cross race near you!
The Aftermath...
Deep in that pain cave... Matt Colby digging deep.
The only climb on the course, in the woods, and coated with what seemed like Crisco.
Matt Colby winning the hole-shot on home turf!
The pedal back to the car... our daily sunset view.

5 week intervals

2011-09-21T12:10:00.005-05:00

Hey hey, looky here, an update!
It's been 5 weeks since the last one, and a lot has happen. Probably I have forgotten more that has happened than I remember.

Seriously, the A-Team wedding approaches in less than2 weeks. Get pumped! I know we are. We're very excited that so many of you will be able to join us on the day. The leaves are beginning to change, so by the time anyone arrives they should be in nearly full explosion mode, prepare yourself to be amazed.
May I recommend a drive to Smuggler's Notch perhaps.

In bike racing news, the Circle A Cycles CX bike is finally together and fully operational this year. It was delivered late last year and I ended up riding a borrowed TriCross at NBX. Not this year...

Circle A CX #1

BMC per usual, really listened to what I wanted the bike to do and made the BB really HIGH. REALLY HIGH. Why so high you ask? Because I like to pedal through corners, and I like to ride over things. Now I can do both. I'm small enough, the certain of gravity issue is moot.

The King of the Apples Service Course includes a full complement of wheels with different treads built on NoTubes Rims I haven't ridden every set yet, but building them up was a breeze. That said, the rims use a larger profile and most and some of my tires won't make the 33mm UCI tire maximum. Specifically my Hutchinson BullDogs which measure a MASSIVE 35.8mm. Oh well.

Races!
The GMSR happen again this year, and I was primed and ready. The TT didn't go superbly, I flatted in the parking lot and wasted a fair chunk of my time switching to a different tire. (Tubeless there too). I warmed up, got to the start early, then turned around and somehow managed to get to the start 1 minute late. Damnit!
I rode a strong TT which should have put me in 20th, but because I was late, I ended up 78th or whatever it was.

Day 2: Circuit race went great. I sat in, looked for opportunities to make up time if a break away went, it never did. At the finished I was in great position, but got stuck with my nose in the wind at 450 meters to go. Too far. I dug deep and lead it out and got within 20 meters of the line, but was blown and finished 4th. It was a good result and one I'm happy with, but the W slipped through my fingers. I'd have my revenge in the crit.

Day 3: The road race. Using a modified course due to the flooding from Irene, it was a relatively uneventful day. I was in the group onto App Gap and just didn't match the winning acceleration. Some days you have it, others you don't.

Day 4: The forecast was for rain, and it was gloomy outside. I made a quart of french press coffee and set about reading the paper. I wasn't scheduled to race until 3:00ish.
Sadly, the race was cancelled due to heavy rain. Some of the road downtown had standing water and there was no way to hold the crit. My father was in town to watch the crit and it was a disappointment for both of us. It was the first time in 7 years that I haven't raced that crit and it left this strange gaping empty feeling. As if the season hadn't really ended. But it had... Next year!

But to get down to business, cyclocross season is here, I'm getting married in less than 2 weeks and I have been driving all over New England. I've been busy and it's been great.

This past weekend, conveniently here in VT, was the opening weekend for New England Cyclocross. I upgraded to the Elite race this year, which is to say I'll be towing the line with former, current future national champions. It's THE show. And more and more each year, European professionals are traveling to the US in the early season to earn UCI points. (UCI points= the worldwide ranking system). You need to finish in the top 10 of any UCI race to earn any points. To simply HOLD UCI points is an accomplishment.
Day 1 of the GMCX weekend was NOT UCI, but was just Elite. I flatted on the first lap going through a bony mud puddle, got a fast wheel change and mustered a 20th place finish. This put me in the prize money, which is always rad.

Day 2 was UCI. And at least half a dozen big guns showed up. It was exciting to be in this event and have some sense of confidence. The start grid is based on random draw, and unfortunately, I drew 72, so I was starting at the back anyhow. Oh well.
The course for day 2 was much harder and the laps were shorter, so there was more hard on tap. I ended up fading hard in the last 3 laps, but finished 17th. 3 places better than day 1 with a MUCH deeper talent pool. This was great! Mrs. KingoftheApples was on hand for the action, which is always a great feeling.

Here's some photos from the weekend:
Lindine getting off the podium after mooshing everyone on Saturday GMCX

Me and my friend Whiskey post-race day 2

Matt Colby charging up the inside on day 1

Ben heckling Matt after not riding the stairs

Miles and miles

2011-08-15T09:50:00.003-05:00

Well, we are about 5 weeks into the new job, and I have tallied nearly 7000 miles on the the Element. Let's take into account that I was away from 7/31-8/7 in Utah.
Driving.
Or Driven?
This past weekend was a lot of fun, even with the 1000+ miles traveled between Friday and Sunday. Mrs. King of the Apples had two showers this weekend, and it's always great to see parts of the family down in RI. We are very excited for the upcoming wedding!

On Saturday, I made a stop by NBX down in Narragansett and picked up some of the new team clothing for cyclocross season. Matt was on his way out for vacation, but it was good to chat with him for a bit. We're looking forward for a good season with the one man Elite CX army. (That's me) I'll do another post with the schedule of events, soon. It will all kick off in Las Vegas in mid September.

Before that however, there is the Green Mountain Stage Race, which 2011 will be my 9th straight year competing in. So that is exciting. There are some rumored changes (like every year) about changing the road race course due to construction, so we'll see how that all shakes out.

In preparation for GMSR, yesterday I headed down to East Hartland, CT for the Tokeneke road race. In years past, this race has been only 3 laps. A handful of year ago it was 4 laps. This year, the 4 laps race returned. Each lap is 22 miles for those of you keeping track. There's 2100' of climbing PER LAP. So yesterday was a total of 8400' in less than 4 hours.
For the nitty gritty, go Here
It rained the ENTIRE time. I did my best tailgunning routine, and avoided the front at all costs. It was a long day, and I need to conserve as much as possible.
On the half way through the 3rd of 4 laps, a break away went that included some heavy hitters. And through paying attention, way able to latch onto this move as it went up the road. Over the crest of a climb I was gapped off a touch, but through fearless descending and a max speed of 51.8 mph, I was able to get back into the mix just before the beginning of the 2+ mile long finishing climb.
Unfortunately, sticking in this group was not in the cards for me, as half way up I wasn't able to maintain the pace.
I rode the rest of the climb alone and rejoined the main field which had whittled itself down to a sad looking group of 20. Again, if you're keeping track, we started with nearly 70 riders, now there were 8ish up the road, and this sad group of 20 or so remaining.
In the end, I rolled across the finish line in 26th place, a bit over 9 minutes behind the winner. There were 38 finishers on the day.

Next up, a good chunk of training, a bachelor party, a trade-show in Killington, a sales event in MA and then GMSR.
Hang on to your horse, we've got miles to go.

Run through the ringer...

2011-08-06T23:28:00.005-05:00

Well, we have reached the close of a long week.
What started with a 2.5 days sales meeting has been concluded with a 1.75 hour mt bike ride through the mountains surrounding Park City, UT and an elk dinner. I have never had elk, and it was amazing.
There are a lot new products about to hit the market and many of them bring some really great innovations.
One of particular interest and excitement is the Camelbak All Clear bottle that has been held back for the past three years. It's finally ready for the market and it's quite impressive. A UV water purification system that's good for 10,000 cycles. (9 years of daily use).
All Clear

Enough of that...
I spent a good portion of the trade show meeting new people, I had only a couple of appointments, but it was great to be completely immersed on other peoples appointments so I could watch and listen. I feel a lot more at ease for the weeks/months ahead.

This morning, EARLY, we ran the Wasatch Wobble 5K trail/mixed race that is put on by Montrail. Did I mention it was early? The start was 6:30, and it was 30ish minutes from the condo. We couldn't quite find it first thing this morning, but got there with a handful of minutes to spare. No photos unfortunately. I warmed up by jogging over to the Port-o-Let. And then I was ready.
There was a prize for the first three folks through the 1 mile marker. I gave it a shot, but fell a little short in 5th. I still ran a sub 6 minute mile. As I lie here writing this, I can feel my legs slowing seizing up.
I ended up posting a 22:30 or there abouts for the run, which I was happy about. Running on the trails was a blast, and my new Montrail Masochists were great. Last time I owned some trail shoes I don't think they actually saw the trail. Times are a changing.

And then later today, while part of the crew headed up the canyon to go fly fishing, we headed for Park City to ride some mountain bikes. Come to find, upon arrival, an hour away, that Scott forgot some needed items. Ty as well. They headed for the Art Fest that had taken over Main St. and I headed for the mountains. Without a map. I think I managed alright, only having to about face 2 or 3 times.
So the stats on the ride... I rode for 1:51, for 13.6 miles, climbed 1800', and averaged 8 mph. Max elevation ended up being 8346'. Even after being here for a week, I was GASSED.
Headed up...

View from the top... or at least the start of my descent.

Town lift, right from downtown

I have never been to Park City, but it was pretty impressive. There is a certain level of ritz and glitz that goes along with it, and part of it seems make believe, but really it just had a really fun high mountain feel to it. I can only imagine what it's like in the middle of winter. As you see above, there is a ski lift, aptly named Town Lift that leaves right from the center of town. Steps off of Main Street.
Any how, for dinner we headed to High West, the first distillery in Utah in the last 130 years, and it was great. This is where I had the elk dinner, which was also great. To start, the three of us shared this Whiskey flight. The glass on the left is not water, but an unaged whiskey that tastes some what similar to tequila, not my favorite.
Flight of Whiskey

All in all, I am VERY excited to be headed home tomorrow. Though I am less excited about all of these thunderstorms I see in the forecast. What gives?

Ssshhhhh....

2011-08-03T10:16:00.007-05:00

Currently, I'm in a condo in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The last three days were spent up at Alta with Thule, learning about the new Aero Blade amongst other things.
I have never been to Utah, and it is pretty wildly impressive. It was a really great setting for the meeting and kept my interest.

It hasn't been all business, as we got out for a hike on Monday afternoon. The terrain was fairly rugged, and definitely steep. Ian from Thule and myself made it to the summit (which turned out to be one of the lowest peaks nearby. According to the Garmin, we were just below 10,000 feet. The trip so far, had been full of wild life sitings, including a large Bull Moose, a baby Coyote, a large snack and a half a dozen mountain goats or sheep. The debate continues as to which they actually were.
Assessing the summit approach

Summit

Mountain goats?

In upcoming news:
Two months until the wedding! Holy hell is it coming quick. We are VERY excited and looking forward to seeing everyone.
Also, Cyclocross season is steadily approaching, keep your eyes here for some of Circle A Cycle's latest treats. And in that line, I will be flying the NBX flag for the CX season. Check them out at @NBXbikes on Twitter, or hereon Facebook. Or if you use the internet the good ol' fashioned way here.
I'm excited to be working with these guys. Keep your eyes on his blog for more information regarding the store, the events and of course, the NBX Cross race we all love in December.
Cross Vegas! Enough said about that...

Get out and ride!

Real Deal

2011-07-20T06:51:00.004-05:00

Hey internet land!
Alright, A LOT has been going on, and most of it all is awesome.
Since the last update... I went to a couple of MTB races, a few road races, a family picnic and began moving the apartment.

I headed to Domnarski Farm for the Root 66 early in May, which was a blast. It was my first race on the SS mtb, and the 34x18 gearing on the 29er was TALL to put it mildly, but I managed and stuck it out for 2nd. They guy who won the category is an ex-pro from the 90s and I didn't see him after the first climb. FAST. I did get a lap in under an hour, so I got the bonus $10.

Following that, I headed to the Lake Placid region for the Wilmington/Whiteface road race, which turned out to be much harder than expected. We raced the entire day in the day, and it was not warm. I manage to finish with the whittled down field and roll through in 31st, which, is not terribly exciting on it's own, but looking at the power file, the effort that it took to get to that point, was exciting, and a great indicator for the rest of the season.

Mid June, Ben Coleman and I headed back to Whiteface for the Leadville Qualifier. Our Cannondale rep hooked us up with some sweet Cannondale jerseys and free entries into the event. Ben got a Flash 29er demo to ride as well. It was a great event, and I was glad Ben and I pre-rode the first climb the day before. It was long, and stair stepped for a ways, but had a definitive crest. Though we started at the back of the field, I quickly made my way to the front, and made it over the first climb with the big boys. The group included Jeremiah Bishop, Alex Cox and a Trek pro from our northern neighbor. I was able to hang with this group for the first 20 of the 56 miles and was happy with that performance. They throttled it just a little too hard at that point in the race and I was gapped off. The next 20 miles I rode solo through NY, pausing for bacon at the feedzone, and finally getting caught by Ben Coleman's group. I rode with them for awhile, until we hit the base of the Whiteface where I surged ahead of the group, trying to secure a top 10 finish. It wasn't to be, as there was a 1.5 mile hike-a-bike straight up the mountain waiting for me, and my short legs walk slow. I finished 16th overall. Ben rolled in 21st. All in all a good day, and qualified for Leadville. Too much going on this year to head out there, so we'll put that on hold until 2012 or later. Bam!

Putney VT was the next Root 66 race and it was MUDDY! The SS field was small, but there was a good battle between myself and Charlie He ended up 2nd, but only by 25 seconds. And he rode the final climb to the finish line, while I shuffled up, looking over my shoulder to ensure I still had the gap. It was a fun win. And then the Pope and I stopped off at Curtis' BBQ. It will change your life.

Next on the menu was Exeter. And after completing it, I can't believe that this was the first time I went to Exeter. It was an incredible course, that I will certainly be going back to. Ironically, this was also my first crit of the season, so while I dressed before the race, there was a small amount of apprehensive as I convinced myself that I remembered how to go around in circles quickly. Turns out I do. I felt VERY comfortable the whole race. Went toe-to-toe with Isaac Howe and Jake Keough for a multiple place prime, in which I got 2nd. And was able to move up when needed. In the end the Boston School/Firefly guys had it lead out well for the last couple of laps and I was feeling good about sitting 8th-10th wheel coming into the last corner. Then... someone stacked it in the last corner, at the front. Boo. I locked up the wheels, but stayed upright. I got swamped by a few guys, but was able to claw back some positions. Rolling through for 9th. It was NorEast's highest finish ever at Exeter, and it's their home race!

No racing on the weekend of the 4th, but we did get down to the beach, which was cloudy and windy. But was still fun. Clam cakes were eaten. Dels lemonade was drank. Fun was had all around. Also nice to see the family down there.

The 5th of July however, saw the start of my new job repping Thule, Camelbak, Clifbar, Princeton Tec, Montrail and Mountain Hard Wear. This is what I do:
On the road Coming to a shop near you!

I was on the road that week Thursday/Friday, picking my way through New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Until getting to RI Friday night to stay with my mom and head to the Attleboro crit on Saturday. I have always liked this crit, it's fun. I arrived a touch on the late side as I wanted to see the finish of the tour stage that day, because it really looked like Vino was going to stick it. Turns out, he didn't.
The race was good. I rode aggressively and tried to make a couple of moves work with no success. Mark McCormack snuck away with 15ish laps to go, but never got far up the road. With 6 to go, I tried to bridge for all I was worth, but it seemed as if they hit the afterburners. I recovered back in the field and navigated the mine field that had become the field in the last two laps. I sprinted in for 7th and 10th overall. Admittedly, it was a half hearted sprint as bodies were hitting the ground even in the last straight away.
Then I hopped in the car and drove straight to Windham, NY to visit The Wolverine and company. Oh, and race my bike on Sunday. Turns out, I wouldn't be doing much racing. In the SS race, I got the whole shot, and was steadily building a solid lead, but broke my chain traversing the mountain. I was glad it didn't happen on the climb. Phew.

Hmm... trouble uploading images right now. More to come.

Game Changers...

2011-05-24T06:29:00.002-05:00

A little while back, I blurted something about Cannondale's new mountain bikes being game changers. Turns out that weeks later, I still feel this way. So let me give you a little bit of insight. Let me add the disclaimer that neither of these are "Race" bikes by any stretch, so don't poo-poo them for that.
First, their new bikes are in a "new" category called Over-Mountain. Let me be the first to say that this is bad marketing. So bad in fact, that while at Highland, I told the Global Marketing director that they were losing core customers because of this decision.
The gimmicky name alienates mountain bikers at all levels. It makes a bike that already sounds too good to be true, sound down right silly.
Let also be the first to tell you, that the bikes WORK. And not in that, "Oh, that's a good attempt at trying to achieve X,Y,Z." But actually work, not to mention rip.

So, a couple of weeks back, Stephen Pope (one of my employees) and I went to Highland Mountain in Northfield, NH. It was opening day for season pass holders and a Dealer Day where they let us demo the new bikes and really put them to the test. There were two bikes on tap. The redesigned Jekyll and the brand new Claymore
The Jekyll has 150mm of travel and the Claymore 180mm. If you're a Specialized guy, then of them as the Enduro and the SX Trail, only better, by land slide.

If you follow Cannondale, you'll know they released the Cannondale Moto a couple of years ago. It was a dud. In the back room they were working on these bikes. They spent 2+ years working with Fox to create a new air pull-style shock, with two different chambers WITH INDEPENDENTLY ADJUSTABLE REBOUND, for two different travel modes. Again, their marketing is silly in that the modes are called "Elevate" and "Flow". Let's call them "short" and "long". There is an important reason for this... which we'll get to.
How it works:
There is a lever mounted on the bar, similar to a fork lock-out lever, or an old thumb shifter that allows you to instantly switch from 150 to 90mm or 180 to 110mm of travel (on the rear shock). INSTANTLY. It has a quick release button to get back to the long travel mode.
Now, I will contend that I was psyched on the DESIGN of the lever itself, but I'm a picky jerk.
If I have my specs correct, which is 70%, all of the Claymore models come with a Fox Talas 36. The Jekyll gets a Talas once you step-up to the 3rd tier model. Also of note, the Jekyll is available in two carbon framed versions, one weighing in at scant 25 pounds. True story.

To the ride...
I have ridden Highland a bunch of times before, and feel confident riding there. There are features above my confidence level and there are some that I love. I used to ride there on a Cannondale Perp which was a 180mm travel coil, freeride sled. It was 40+ pounds, in size small. The Claymore comes in at 35 pounds out of the box.
Anyway, I first took out a Jekyll, in size small, which truth be told, was a bit on the small side for me. We warmed up on some of the easier trails, and it took a couple of runs to get the rebound tuned in. (read: slowed WAY down) I was riding the Ultimate version (25 lbs), with Cannondale Hollowgram crankset, 2x10 drive train, XX components and no chain guide. Stephen was on the Claymore. I had no problem keeping up with him on the fastest sections, and while the ultra light bike did get a little skittish in some hairier situations, I feel that I was pushing the bike a little further than it may have been intended.
Let me sum up the performance of the Jekyll. Enduro Killer. Nomad Killer. You know name it, all-mountain 6" travel bike Killer. When you drop it into short travel mode, it takes off like a rocket. And I never like full suspension bikes. It pedaled amazingly well. The pull shock makes the travel feel bottomless and cushy like a coil, only without any of the weight, and with all of the adjustment. Who buys this Ultimate version for huge money? The same guy buying a S-Works Enduro, or full carbon XTR Nomad. But the base model starts right in line with Enduros etc, just shy of $3000.
I would confidently ride this bike at Highland and every where in between. If you ride XC mostly but what a bike for all days, it won't disappoint.

Which brings us to the Claymore. Everything I just said about the Jekyll rings true here, only with more travel.
Where it got interesting for me, was that unlike any other big travel bike I have ever ridden, you could pedal this bike into things. Talking to Chris Van Dine he likened switching the bike to short travel mode like "Hitting the boost valve." On a trail like Hellion, that is full of large table-top jumps, and step-ups that generally I couldn't clear, I was able to shorten the travel, accelerate and clear them. Some of them anyhow. In short, this bike, that I had never ridden, on trails I hadn't ridden in 2+ years, was making me a more confident and advanced rider.
I was hitting drops that I hadn't before in the past, and bike gobbled it up.
Stephen hit every drop/feature on every trail.
The drop out of the woods at the top on NE Style, cleaned.
Both wooden step-ups, cleaned.
The Reef drop, cleaned.
Every other new feature and drop on the mountain, cleaned.
He had never ridden this bike either, and had never seen the trails.

These bikes truly allow someone to have ONE bike, that can have two VERY distinct personalities. For RI folks, liken it to having a bike that would be fun and nimble enough to rip through Big River and then take on the biggest lines in Lincoln Woods or Arcadia.
For VT, you could ride Perry Hill with ease, and take the biggest hits on Rasta Man without hesitation.

These bikes, once they straighten our their marketing, will have a HUGE impact on the "everyman" mountain bike.
One bike to rule them all.

The dawn...

2011-03-25T06:51:00.002-05:00

Spring is a tough season for the bike racer.
Nerves are all a flutter, there's that anxious feeling in the middle of you're belly, and your head is telling you you're not quite ready yet.
I have officially signed up for my first race of the season, which like years past will be the King of Burlingame MTB TT. It has been an elusive race for me, netting 2nd and 3rd overall, as well as last year, flatting within in the first 4 minutes to finish near the bottom of the pile. I'm hoping this year, a little luck will be on my side. But we'll see. As has been the trend of years past, I will most likely be on a borrowed bike.
I have gotten some out door miles over the last week, and I have also been battling a cold over the last week+. I wonder if there is a connection...
I'm looking forward to throwing my hat into the ring of the New England race scene once again, and getting back to the pointy end of things. Last season was a very refreshing approach to racing. One that found me spending more time focusing on relaxing and executing, rather than covering moves and trying create agitation within the race.

On a different note, I have been selected to be one of the Trail Stewards for my nearest trail network, Sunny Hollow. This is a pretty exciting opportunity, even if it is all volunteer based. Spending more time in the woods is never a bad thing.

In other news, I have secured a hotel for all of our out of town wedding guests. This information forthcoming, but it's as close to town as I could get, kept it classy, and didn't have to make a two night commitment, I think you'll like it. Yes, the collective you.
We are working on Save-the-Dates over the next week. Most other large details have been settled, for the moment.

I'll be making a brief trip down to the RI this weekend, and in true RI fashion, KB will be out of town while I am there. I'm beginning to become suspicious of this trend.

There is lots of other news, but those irons are still in the fire. We'll see which one comes out first. As for the moment, I have some more procrastinating to do while I wait for the temperature to rise above freezing so I can ride outside.

Yeah!

Riding that wild winter roller coaster

2011-02-15T07:52:00.004-05:00

First off, if I haven't shared this already, this is one of my favorite blogs.
Bike Frame Stickers
It doesn't take a lot of time to check it out, or you can spent quite a bit of time getting lost in it, which ever. It's pretty fun to see. None from Rhode Island or VT just yet.
January started off excellently, with a few outdoor training rides, some skate skiing and a healthy amount of the trainer.
This was quickly reversed at the end of the month when father winter released his wrath on Vermont.
The concept of riding outside, at best, is a distant one. I have been logging my time on the trainer, and at the gym, and trying to mix it up with days snowboarding, but the emotional roller coaster gets tedious.
That said, yesterday it was over 40 degrees in town, and it felt pretty amazing to not wear a hat or gloves.
That was quickly book ended by today's high of 5 degrees. We're back on the rise tomorrow, and weather is supposed to approach 50 in a couple of days. Spring cometh!

Recently Ali and I were in Austin, TX.
We went to a BBQ join outside of town called Salt Lick.
The beginning...

The middle...

The end...

Ribs, brisket, sausage, potato salad and slaw. Yum.

Closing out a season...

2010-12-30T21:56:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of the season, I caught a couple ear fulls, from different folks about down grading to cat 3 in cross. And I'll be the first to admit, I had second thoughts about it.
At the first race of the season, I bagged a W, by a huge margin, and really started to rethink the decision. That was until I hit my first Verge race of the year. Turns out NYCross and Verge pull from some different sectors. So, in the 3s I would stay, focusing on learning HOW to RACE cross, rather than how to avoid getting my head kicked in.
Working with Kyle we really focused a lot on the first lap, and some insane cross specific work, that at the time, I was less than psyched to be completing. I use the word completing loosely, because there some workouts I definitely did not finish.

Fast forward to NBX.
A cross season's worth of focused training, and I was toeing the line of "goal" weekend. I had managed to fend off sickness, not get injured, and maintain my fitness up to this point. All while bagging a couple more wins in the NYCross series, but missing out on a Verge "W".
Saturday at NBX, pre-riding the start, I had Deja Vu to some of the workouts I had done leading into the weekend, and instantly, I felt ready. I knew exactly what this was going to feel like, barring a crash, and I knew exactly how I was going to respond.
Sure enough, after the whistle, I was settling into 6th wheel, biding my time and THINKING about what I was doing. This was probably the best feeling of the season, save for the W that was 40+ minutes away. And then it all happened. Just as I had visualized and planned, and then executed. I'll save the play by play race details for another time. It was most excellent.
The win that Saturday was followed by a holiday, which was followed by a hangover, which was followed by the worst feeling first lap EVER on Sunday. Which was, luck on my side, and weight off my shoulders, followed by a 3rd step on the podium in Sundays race. Which was then followed by an upgrade to the Elite field, with my new Cyclocross education. I feel ready.

Now, 2011 looms large, and I am excited. I am more excited about next season and next year than any year in recent memory. My brother's getting married, I'm getting married, and for some, outside pressures make them feel distracted or stressed and unable to train and focus. For me... I feel like it sharpens all of my instincts and makes me want to get the MOST out of every training session, and this in turn, produces better results. Pumped.

Did I mention that I'm getting married?!

Back to bikes.
The weekend before Christmas I was in RI visiting family, and I was fortunate to go for a 3 hour mtb ride with Rob Stine. He gave me the full tour of Carr Pond. Which I had ridden 1000 times, but never knew about an entrance that made riding there WAY more enjoyable. So that was great.
The next day though, was a truly special experience.
I rode for another 3 hours with my uncles and cousin in-laws. These guys ride every Sunday at Lincoln Woods. And being there, with that crew, REALLY brought me back to my roots. And I didn't remember, but I FELT why I love riding and racing so much. There's a feeling that comes along with it, that ANYTHING is possible. ANYTHING. And it was great to spend time with family that I don't see that often and some that I had never met before. If anyone wants to follow in my foot steps and tackle the cycling industry, I can point you in the right direction and get you fast as fast can be. If you want to get there...

So, here's to looking forward to a promising year of 2011, from this point forward, dubbed "Sticks". To weddings, and bright futures, and making bikes go super fast. And growing, though not necessarily growing up.

Happy New Year.
Anyone up for the 11,000 mile challenge?

Winning NBX, visiting family, blowing up cars...

2010-12-22T12:12:00.001-05:00

Yup, there are stories to come.

In the works.

Stay tuned.

Winning, flatting and riding

2010-10-21T11:32:00.003-05:00

What is the good word? I'm engaged, that's what!
In other boring news, cyclocross, as I'm sure you're well aware, has hit full swing.
After an aborted hiking trip due to freezing temps and LOTS of mud, I raced the first day of the Green Mountain Cyclocross weekend. As you might imagine, similar to my other races, I finished assembling the bike that morning. That's my jam!
I started in the nose bleed section, that's the price for registering 30 minutes before the start.
I hit the gas off the line and just kept leap frogging people. It was fun, the weather was amazing, the sun was out, and the course lent itself to some ideal cornering skills.
I ended up finishing 12th in the race, there were some juniors up ahead of me. So that was a satisfying day. Not to mention I bested Mottram by 4 places. Nice.

Next stop on the CX calendar was Ommegang Brewery CX in Cooperstown, NY. This was a GREAT event and highly recommend anyone check it out. My friend Matt raced his first ever CX race and pulled off 6th, awesome. I counted him as 5th, but what do I know.
I scored the W later in the morning, after taking control of the lead half-way through lap one. While others were busy in Gloucester getting wet and suffering, we were lounging in the crisp NY sun and drinking delicious brews. Yum.

Next! The second weekend in October was the Providence Cyclocross weekend, and originally I hadn't planned on taking part. Then, plans changed. I also found out that they were using Verge Series points for the start grid, which meant on day one I had a second row start. That was the highlight of the day, as I was T-boned going into the barriers on lap one, then I was run over. After getting myself righted, I battled back from nearly last to secure a 20th. While that isn't that excited, I felt really confident in the way I race and was eager for Day 2.
Day 2 arrived, and my 2nd row start turned into a front row start. This was great. I was 2nd on the holeshot, then faded to 5th on the first lap. It was touch and go with the 4 leaders for the first 1.5 laps or so. I made contact, and surged ahead taking only 2 of the leading 4 with me. It was now a 3 man race. Or rather, a 2 man and 1 junior race. I lead for 3 laps until coming out a running section, I burped some air from the tire on my remount. It was too soft to continue riding it on the off camber and I was forced to pit. After what may have possibly been the world's slowest flat change, I returned to racing in about 7th or 8th position. There was a group hard charging behind me, and it took a lap for me to regain my composure. I was able to ride my way back into 5th, nearly missing 4th by only a handful of seconds. Next time. Great weekend of racing.

Last weekend I was in Vegas, where I successfully didn't LOSE any money and managed to make $4.50. It was a hard earned $4.50. The sun was warm and it felt good to get some hot temperatures before winter cometh. Back to work on Monday.

Then yesterday, to get myself psyched on riding again after some days off, we rode the skatepark for a couple of hours. I landed my first 360s ever, and feel like I really hit a new level in progression. It's always nice to get better.

This weekend I'll be at the Saratoga Spa CX race in NY, if this sore throat goes away any way. See how I feel tomorrow.

More to come!

Yarrr!

2010-09-29T07:01:00.002-05:00

Round-up!
Alright here...
So, the Green Mountain Stage race went well. I stunk up the TT, finished safely and towards the front in the circuit race, had a reasonably good road race, despite losing 4 minutes. I made it to the bottom of App Gap with the leaders. Oh well. And then slammed the gas for a 2nd place finish in the crit.
There were a few panicked laps in the beginning of the crit, where my cruise control was set a notch too low and I was drifting a ways back. I did some crit pack magic and place myself in the top 15 wheels for the rest of the race and waited for the action to happen. Bam!

What happened next?
I went to RI to Julians for beer dinner. Fantastic! Spending time with Scott and Jay Carr is always a treat, not to mention BSO and the amzing food. BSO gave me a schooling in Mortal Combat vs DC later, and that was that. A visit to Circle A, and back to VT.

Then Ali and I hiked a bit of the long trail, camped out near the top of Mt. Abe for the night, it was 36 or so degrees, and realized in the morning we had forgotten a key item, in the form of matches, or a lighter. So cooking was out of the question. Plus, the trail was SUPER wet and muddy. So we headed for home, and spent the day bopping around, pumpkin picking and eating cider doughnuts in Grand Isle. Sounds sweet, eh? It was.

Mottram crashed in my living room that weekend, and I decided I would give him a run for his money on Sunday at Catamount CX. I think I heard Gewilli yell "Adam, what are you doing?!?" To which I will now reply, racing my bike, clearly.
Mottram, having had a solid race on Saturday, got the call up to the second row. Myself, having registered just 10 minutes prior to registration closing, lined up in the 2nd to LAST row. I had my work cut out for me.
The course was fun, my bike had just been assembled that morning, so there were some shifting bugs to work out. It held together and I was able to get around most of the field. There were 11 guys in front of me, 2-3 of them juniors, so I got a top ten, from the last row. Oh, and I beat Mottram by 4 spots. Bam! Pretty good for the first day in the CX bike. In the grass, I hate grass.

Next!
VT 50 Miler. This thing is hard, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Thanks to my superior training program, outlined by Kyle Wolfe, I rode well. It was fun to go into an event of this difficulty with really, no idea, what the course was going to be like. I had gathered tidbits from different folks, but I still had no idea. It was hard. And nearly all the single track came in the last 15 miles. And for the finish, you climb most of the way up Mt. Ascutney, just to turn around and blitz into the finish. I rode this on a bike that was assembled on Saturday (race was Sunday at 6:05am). And there were certainly some fit issues going on. Bars too wide, too high, saddle a smidge to high, too much air in the tires, and I carried too much water (I'm ok with that.) I'm not making excuses, just outlining the circumstance. I'm psyched on how the race played out.
I rode the store's demo Specializd Stumpjumper 29er hardtail. Rocketship. The Ibis is for sale. Seriously.
I finished in 4:35:47.7. Good enough for 5th in Senior 1 Expert, and 18th overall. The top 4 guys broke the course record. And as the story goes, the guy who won, in 4:06, was taking pictures along with way with a digital camera he had in his jersey pocket. WTF?

Then it was Ali's birthday, of the golden variety, and we celebrated in style here at Casa De Park. It was grand.

Next up on the list if the Ommegang Brewery CX race which is happening this coming weekend. You can win your weight in beer. Awesome!

Then my mom's wedding, then Vegas, then more CX, then Halloween, and so and so forth.

So much riding to do... so little time.

On my way...

2010-09-10T07:59:00.002-05:00

To 2nd place at the GMSR crit.
If you crunch the numbers, the average speed was 36 MPH. Logic says that this is in accurate.
Beginning the sprint.

I'm the one in green, on the steel bike, with standard spoked wheels.

VT 50 Miler

2010-08-30T20:45:00.001-05:00

Hey all,
Ignore this if you already saw it on Facebook.
Trying to help raise some funds for Vermont Adaptive Sports. The Vermont 50 Miler at the end of September is a big fundraiser for them, and they need all the help they can get. Getting disabled folks outside and having fun!
Help if you can.
Thanks!Super easy donation link

Irons in the Fire!

2010-08-28T13:02:00.003-05:00

Hey what a week what a month!

What has been happening, lots!

To recap briefly, the hodge podge team of Myself, Sean Mottram, Justin "To fast for reality" Lindine, and Rob Stine headed to the 24 Hours of Great Glen. Kyle Wolfe was on head to make sure asses were kicked in a professional and organized fashion.
First, let me say, if you need a coach who actually pays attention to what you're saying and makes sure you get done what you need to get done, KW is the guy. You can contact him: here Tell him you want to be super fast. The amount of fitness that I have regained in the small handful of months that I have been focused on training is staggering.
Now, that's not to say it was easy, but with the right amount of direction and an ear to bend when needed, I have matched or bested the amount of fitness I had in 2008 while still riding for Targetraining. Awesome.
Any way, 24 Hours of Great Glen was a smashing success. Myself and Stine were the only two on the team with any experience doing a 24 hour race. I had done it once, last year. And Stine I think was in the same boat. That said, I decided a bunch of weeks earlier when I signed us up that we were going for the grand champion overall win. There was whining when my teammates saw we were suddenly in the pro category. There was no whining on Sunday afternoon when they saw that we were on the top step of both the Pro and the Overall podium. A plan perfectly executed. For more details on this race, call me or e-mail me and I'll tell you all about it.
Here's a synopsis:
We wouldn't have won without the correct mix of teammates.
Justin Lindine is faster than anyone else you know.
He's also nicer than anyone else you know.
He also bakes a great zucchini bread.
Kyle Wolfe is like glue.
He's not afraid to force feed you bowl of pasta if it means victory is on the line.
I hadn't ridden my personal mt bike at all prior to this race. Didn't seem to bother me too much.
My Fox Fork would lose 10-15 psi of pressure every lap.
Sean Mottram for the first time this season, didn't flat! Amazing. I did though.
Rob Stine rode someone else's bike on all but one lap. That one lap was his slowest. Go figure.
We each consumed somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000-10000 calories from Friday evening to Sunday at 1:00pm. Gross.
We were always in the lead. Either by 35 seconds, or 1 lap and 9 minutes.
Sean lost the baton and got us a 5 minute penalty.
I turned as white as a ghost at one point, but was revived by runny eggs, bad coffee, and fake maple syrup.
It took me 8 days to recover. Now I am fast.

Next!
Last Thursday I went to the dentist to have my wisdom teeth "extracted". Saying extracted sounds so much cooler than "pulled." The entire process of removing the teeth (15% of my mouthful of teeth) took about 30 minutes. Crazy. The worst part was getting the novicaine shots. Oh that's right, I was NOT put under. Some vallium and some novicaine, done. My mouth feels a million times better. Still recovering and drinking lots of liquid food. Ensure Vanilla shakes are tasty!

GMSR!
It's happening this weekend. I'm in the cat 2 race. I'm looking forward to it. I'm feeling very fit and excited. The road race has been shortened to it's original 65 mile distance and will go over Middlebury Gap and finish a top Appalachian Gap. Feel free to geek out and follow that race Here. It's going to be good.
My Circle A is amazing to road races. AMAZING.
Also, following the GMSR I will have set of Lew Racing Carbon wheels with American Classic Hubs for sale WITH Continental tires already glued. And if I know you, I'll include a cassette. They weigh 1100 grams for the set. LIGHT! CHEAP.
Also following GMSR I'll have a PowerTap head unit for sale as I'm going to upgrade my geekdom to the Garmin level. Awesome. Also cheap.

Then!
Great Divide Beer Dinner with SS in PVD! Who's excited? Ali and I will be travelling down on Saturday night or Sunday morning, be on the look out.

More!
3 days of hiking on the Long Trail weather permitting.

Then!
Vermont 50 miler. For as long as I have raced mountain bikes this race has beckoned me. And finally, I will be contesting it. And while I think it'd be the ideal race to have a 29er for... I just don't have one. Oh well. You can check the results but I don't think there's real time tracking unfortunately.
This even directly precede's Ali's birthday! Woo! Party.

And after all of this great stuff... per usual, I have said there is no way I would be racing cross this season blah blah blah... but for one reason or another, I have decided to throw my hat in the ring. Although this time! I'll be in the B race, so it should be a much more enjoyable affair of pain and mud. Snazzy bike photos to follow. Thanks to everyone who has helped me cobble it together. Still need a right shifter, chainrings, a saddle, and brakes. Almost complete!

Ride your bike, have fun, go hiking, drink tasty beverages.

24 Hours of Great Glen

2010-08-13T06:04:00.002-05:00

Find yourself online, at home, and pining for the thrill of 24 hours of shred?

Well, you can live vicariously through my exploits at the base on Mount Washington by going to these two places.
You can also just keep your eye on Facebook, since Twitter and Facebook are linked.

First, Twetter, my thumbs might be too tired from shifting to accurately type, but check it out any how: Some blah blah

Then, for the nerds out there, who want to see a battle royale between myself, and the wolverine versus Colin R and that gang, a head to head pro-race show down of epic proportions. Nerville
Nerdville is updated in real time and is the same information we'll be using to see how the hell we're doing.

Team Hamseter Head
Shred City!

Check back next week for a full report and hopefully some photos.

Grip it and rip it

2010-08-02T17:50:00.002-05:00

Well, after 10 days behind bars, and countless other pedaling trips, the summer is rolling along.
Not even sure where to begin.
Ali has left the country for a short moment, and I'm stuck at home, in the rain, bored.

On the horizon... Concord Crit, to get my bike turning abilities up to snuff. Then the 24 hours of Great Glen where complete domination is planned, as long as Grumpy Mottram doesn't flat us out of contention. Someone get this guy on tubeless already. Then it's GMSR, then VT 50.

A bunch of events that I am really excited, and really motivated for.
I have been training a lot, and with the help of Kyle Wolfe, getting fast too. You can hire him to make you fast as well. He's really quite good at it.

The Circle A is kicking ass and getting compliments everywhere it goes, and just today it tipped the scales at a mere 15.6 pounds. What? It's steel right? Yes it is. Two bottle cages and a computer mount were both installed at time of weigh in. It should be a bit lighter come GMSR TT as well.
Those secret built 1100 gram wheels sure don't hurt. Any one remember Lew Racing?

Scrambling to get my mt bike back together, but I think Jack from Specialized is going to pull through for me for Great Glen for one fast freaking speed machine.

Feel free to check out the team page Hamster Head

Knowledge Bikes is ever so slowly taking off. We successfully put on and hosted our first BMX jam at the beginning of the month. If my computer weren't on it's death bed, there would be photos to boot. Be on the look-out for a virtual yard sale as I clean out some stuff to pay for a new computer. Buy it!

Wisdom teeth are coming out at the end of this month and I'm really looking forward to that. No, I really am.

We might be visiting RI in a few weeks, yet to be determined. I'll be looking for folks to ride with on the 21st, so get your tour guide skills in order.

I don't know what else is happening...
Brother's wedding coming up in a bunch of months. Vegas in a only a few months. Work work work. Big plans all around.

Hilltowns for those that are wonderingResults are here

While you'll notice that I am the last group on the road there, that was the first road race I completed this season. The second one that I have entered, and judging by that race and the ride I did a few days ago... the engine room is getting hot!
I was with the group until the steep major climb and then it blew to pieces. I settled in and rode easy and hooked up with those guys over the top. And that was that.
Really looking forward to some good ol' fashioned bike racing. If anyone has a slot on their team for 2011, I'll be looking.

Keep your ear to the ground for live from the race tweets from 24HOGG. check that out on twitter at Tweetville

Yippee!

10 Days behind bars

2010-06-25T06:40:00.002-05:00

That's the title of my next great post.

When I get around to writing it.

Life has been hectic lately, and in a good way. BMC's wedding is this weekend. Red Sox next Saturday, family picnic on the 4th. Ali and I went to Maine a few weeks ago.
I blasted to and from Austin, TX on the Harley, solo, a few days back. Without any major incident.
Work has been humming along.
Training is getting back to steady.
The legs feel solid and the body feels strong.

BMX/Skate Jam hosted by Knowledge Bikes (that's me) slated for 7/10 in Essex, VT. It's a fundraiser for the new dirt jump/bike park. If you're around, come check it out. Guaranteed to be a good time.

Ride

My life behind bars...

2010-06-19T21:02:00.001-05:00

Last Tuesday I left Burlington, VT on my Harley and rode down to Austin, TX. On Sunday I went on some insane epic 4 hour mountain bike ride on the Green Belt which just so happens to be in the heart of Austin.
On Monday afternoon I began my ride back.
On Wednesday I rode 630 miles to arrive somewhere just East of the PA border in Ohio for the night.

There are a lot more details to follow.
And my training has been GOOD. Maybe even GOOOD. That's right, three "O"s

Sunapee sunshine

2010-05-25T08:20:00.001-05:00

I will tell you all about it...

The eve...

2010-05-21T08:12:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is my first road race of the year.
And I have been training... and visualizing, and eating properly and generally preparing, in a fashion that feels at the same time foreign and very familiar.
Kyle Wolfe have been a huge help in getting me going here for the year, and I'm looking forward to finding some success later in the season. Really, I'm looking forward to the next couple of seasons, and then a couple after that too.
Sean at Skirack has been monumental in setting me up on the bike. And while I'm always hesitant to admit it, the Big Red Shas really come through with this new saddle.That saddle is a game changer, seriously.
I have never felt more comfortable, more stable, more powerful on the bike in the last ten years. I'll have the new Powertapin the next couple of weeks so we'll see if I'm just blowing smoke or if what seems to be true actually is.
That, and I've got some new pedals on the way, since these Crank Brothers Quattros are dieing a slow and not so quiet death.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, with little expectation, so it's an interesting feeling. I'll give you the full report tomorrow whether I get my head kicked in, I make the selection, or I just grind myself down to hang onto the group. It's really a big unknown at this point. I do know that my fitness is decent and getting better every day.

On the other side of things, Vermont is in full bloom and there is a pretty amazing sense of spring and sunshine in the air. I'm excited to go mt biking with the lady in the next week or so. She had a blast the last time, so let's hope this time is equally as successful.
Jim W in RI made mention of a mt bike trip up to the Kingdom Trails later this summer, which will be great. If anyone ever heads up that way, let me know and I'll meet you for a ride or two.

The Ibis is back together, which was posted on Twitter/Facebook and it still feels like the best bike when I start to turn the pedals. So, for the time being, I'm going to stick with it. I was tempted to get a new mtb this year, but I don't think it's needed, and that's exciting.
I need to get some photos of the Nightster on here since it's seen quite a few changes in the early spring. The new sissy bar for Ali is awesome, and she gave it the thumbs up seal of approval. We didn't ride very far, but we're learning to ride together.

Keep an ear to the ground for Knowledge Bike Co. We're hosting our first event July 10th in Essex Junction, VT. It's a fundraiser to jump start the fund raising for the new dirt jump/bike park they're going to build directly adjacent to the skatepark. Yup.

And... I'm not sure if we'll make it down anytime between now and then, but Ali and I will be descending on Rhode Island at the end of June. For a pretty exciting event. Woo!

Alright... it's my day off, I have things to do, and time is a wasting!

Riding bikes.

2010-05-05T07:54:00.002-05:00

The lake

So, life has been all over the map. Highs, lows, very lows, in between and everything else. Nothing short of an adventure.
I have begun pedaling my bike.
And with the wrath of a snow storm last week and a thunder storm that produced a water spout on the lake, I have been writing a fair amount of the trainer. Which is kind of strange to think about really. But it is what it is.

I'll be appearing at Lake Sunapee RR in a few weeks, ready to hang on for dear life, since I assume that's really all I will be good for at that point in time.
Regardless, I am looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to summer weather, hiking, biking, spiking and triking. I don't own spikes or a trike, but if I did, I'd be dam excited about it.
Fuhgetta the Jetta has moved on. A guy took the car and was leaving for California. I hope he made it. This leaves me with the Harley and some bikes. I have also signed up for Carshare here in Burlington, which of the two times I have had to use it, was a piece of cake, super easy and awesome. Also, Ali occasionally lets me ride along in her car too.

We have been faced with some severe challenges lately, and it's been difficult, but just keeping moving forward has been helpful. Hard.

See you at Sunapee?

Challenge

2010-04-21T14:23:00.001-05:00

Things can be hard sometimes.
Sometimes we make them harder than they need to be...

Are you tough? Use promo code: Skirack

http://www.spartanrace.com/

Steel horse

2010-03-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

Running has been going great. I got into a new pair of shoes that have made everything a lot more comfortable. The right equipment for the right job. Where ever you are, you should consider finding a store that does some kind of video analysis of the shoe on your foot. This way you'll make sure you have the correct amount of support, room in the shoe, etc. Makes a huge difference.
On that note, for work I'm trying to get started on a "Running my First Marathon Blog", if I happens, the link will appear here. If it doesn't... well. Training for the marathon has been going ok. My IT band is tight as usual, and easing into things has seemed to help greatly.
Side note, Ali gave me this great book "Everything Matters" and so far it has been amazing. Written by some young guy Ron Currie. It's a quick read, and while the second half may be terrible, I will endorse the first half of the book fully.

Who's looking forward to spring and summer? This guy is for sure. I have been eyeballing a list of different events and races I want to get to this year. What I haven't been doing is getting the wheels turning. But between working and running... well, who's got the time. I will hopefully be at the Burlingame TT this year. It's less than a month away at this point and I'm not sure I'll be able to get on a single trail before then. Shouldn't matter right? We'll see.

I have been riding my new Circle A a bunch. It's amazing. So far it's with standing the abuse of riding the park, the real test is going to be once I get it outside in the real world. Landings are quite as transitioned in the street. But the thing is amazing.
See.Circle A BMX

The insane thing about this bike, is that fully built WITH pegs it's 20.25 lbs. So... we'll see how that goes.
I have been working on shooting some video of riding with Colby, and we've gotten a few good shots, however, this here ol' laptop can't quite handle it. So while I wait for a new computer, you can wait to see some videos.

No big plans on the horizon at the moment. Spring is around the corner, day light savings is around the corner, my birthday is around the corner, c'mon summer!

Oh that's right, this weekend is a mini trip to Taunton, MA. We're headed to Maul's Brawl a BMX contest. Colby's friend is flying back East from San Fran and we're hoping for a couple solid days of riding. Definitely going to need a break after 3/6/2010 Tax-Free day here in VT. It's going to be bananas!

Bending the Rules...

2010-02-20T10:18:00.003-05:00

In the ever challenging race to make the fastest TT bike on the planet, Specialized just ran into a huge road block.
Just Say NO to the Shiv
The UCI has reared it's ugly head and shut down Contador from using the Specialized Shiv tomorrow. The team was overnighted some older Transition frames, so they'll be able to race, but all that training just fell on it's face.

Speaking of training. I am training for the Burlington City Marathon, which is at the end of May. Last weekend in fact. There is something about starting training that feels like your perpetually going up hill. Any new season, whether it's road, or mountain, or running, or snowboarding; the first part is always the hardest. The good news, is that knowing this helps you get to the top, or over that first part. And generally, I like to climb, so I think I'm in a good position. All things considered, I think I may have started my marathon training a wee bit late, so I'll have to hit the accelerated in about 8 weeks to jump start my training. But, it is what it is.
That said, like most other things, I feel like if I'm going to do the marathon, I need to do it as fast as I possibly can. I'm not going to take satisfaction from just crossing the line. So, hopefully, through proper nutrition, and some solid training, I'll be able to run it quickly, without reducing myself to a quivering, crawling blob in the last 5 miles. Rumor has it those are the hardest. Fortunately, Mike Sam is also running the marathon He just bagged 20so I'll be able to pick his brain about it after the fact. I'm pretty sure it's next month, assuming he's doing the ocean state.

That's it, engagement party for my brother tonight, and snow showers are flying.

Bike season is coming!

I guess it has been awhile...

2010-01-29T07:13:00.002-05:00

Hello internet land,
What is the news, indeed. Well first, I have acquired This it's made by a small, though enormously talented frame builder. Perhaps you have heard of them. Circle A Cycles. Check 'em out. I'm in the process of moving, so once it's built up 100%, I'll fire off some photos for the masses out there. Waiting on a fork.
Moving you say?! But where to! Well, at this time we're moving approximately one mile due north. Which, I am super excited about, and I know Ali is super excited about as well. The new place is bigger, newer, fresher, cleaner and has an amazing back yard which I look forward to lying down in. There will also be some raised beds, not for lying down in, but for growing tasty vegetables. That's all happening this weekend and we are stoked. Along with the big back yard, there are a host of other amenities which will kick ass and make for a more pleasant visit when ya'll get here. Hint.
Also, on the huge news front, my brother is getting married next January. Rad. More rad than that, he asked me to be the best man. Sweet! So, looking forward to that. Sounds like the wedding is going to be an all out knock down drag out good time, so I'll report more when I know more. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream cart... what more do you need to know. BMC, take note.
It's 4 degrees out right now. Which is a stark contrast to the 50 degrees from Monday. Monday was also the day that Fuhgetta the Jetta and I got into a minor fender bender. Literally, my fender is bent. I'm fine, thanks for asking. A cab backed into me at an intersection. Lame. There is more to this story... but no need to tell it. The Jetta is running... mediocre at the moment. And now it needs a headlight. And an inspection. One more year??? However, there is a 1991 White Jetta Diesel 1.6 near buy for sale for short money. Veggie conversion any one?
And on the bike front... 2010 will mark the year of the all steel steed stable. Mountain bike revival of my Ibis, thanks in no small part to Travis. Thanks Travis! Looks for photos of THAT bike in the next month or so. The GT Dirt Coalition decided not to move forward with the program for 2010, after much talk of expanding the program. So, that was a bummer. I did get a sweet mountain bike AND was gifted a 10X10 easy-up tent, which is pretty great to have. But, as of this moment, I will be rocking the Ibis for the year, at such events as 24 hours of Great Glen, Burlingame TT, 12 Hours of Bradbury, Vermont 50, Hampshire 100, and maybe 24 of Pats Peak. Not to mention the weekly show-down here in VT. I'm psyched.
The Circle A (road) is currently under revision, awaiting a crankset and some handlebars. Oh, and a saddle. I had some issues with bar drop and reach on that bike, and have finally figured out the correct position, so it's a matter of getting it back together. I was riding a Rival crank on it last year, but in the name of aesthetics, it was horrid. So a new Red crank will come along shortly. Look for that bike at the Killington Stage Race, perhaps out west, most likely NOT GMSR (first time in...7 years? 8 years?) and maybe a couple of choice other events. You will NOT see me at Battenkill Roubaix, I can tell you that right now. How Dieter gets away with charging $75.00 to ride around on questionable roads with fields that are becoming exceedingly too large, is beyond me. It's great to have an event of that size, but I'll ride my own dirt roads for free thank you very much. Sorry. Love the race, can't afford a $200 one day event with no substantial price money at the end.
And if you clicked the above link, you'll see BMC's latest handy work, though at this point he's probably finished a couple more frames. I've been riding BMX a lot and not worrying about fitness levels and V02 Max and thresh holds and all that stuff. Just riding my bike. And that's really where it's headed for 2010, just riding my bike, because that's really what I love to do. Be on the look out for some video edits of riding as I have a new camera, just waiting to upgrade the computer so it can handle it. This spring.
And... there's more, always more, but that's what's up for the moment. I'll be going to a week long furniture making class this summer/all and I'm extremely excited to be there. It's something I have wanted to do for a VERY long time and Ali has helped me get there, so I am forever grateful for that, amongst other things. Maybe some changes coming in the future with projects and direction, buy I need to steady the boat first.
Looking to get a mini-road trip in this summer to hit the Circuit BMX trails, hopefully. Last time I was in town, I stopped by Circuit and was treated to some photos of the trails and they are looking better than EVER. Really. So, pumped to get down there. Hopefully ride a couple more times at Rye before the winter is out and then it's street! Nothing feels better.

Ok... enough is enough! There are no prizes for making it this far. I think I'll hold a contest soon... ideas are welcomed. As well as prize donations.

Creeping towards sliding

2009-12-04T21:34:00.003-05:00

The winter season is looming and I have this sneaking suspicion that it will soon drop from the sky like a safe out of a plane.
HARD.
But, I think folks are beginning to get a little anxious anyhow. So be it. I for one have been thoroughly enjoying my 50 degree December days. In fact yesterday set a record with a high of 59 degrees here in Burlington. Austin, TX has snow before we do! Take that Scotty!
I am looking forward to 2010's riding season with zero obligations and plenty of ambition. I am also looking forward to my right leg feeling better. It is slowly and steadily improving and I'm able to swing my leg over the bike without hesitating, but haven't tried hitting the pedals hard in awhile. I'll save for the spring.
Speaking of bicycles.
2009 Scott Addict CX with Ultegra ridden 6 times 52cm, MINT for sale. E-mail for details if interested. VERY good price. 17 lbs.

I have heard some grumbling from folks about sponsorships lately and I realized, you know, I just want to ride my bike. I don't care. I want to ride it to work, to the store, to ice cream, around the block, at the skatepark, in the woods, down mountains, over passes, whatever. I really love riding my bike. And I'm grateful to all the experiences Targetraining and other teams offered me and this last year of minimal racing that put everything into perspective. There is no better activity than pushing the pedals. I am looking forward to some fast racing this season, possibly a return to Gila, and plenty of woods riding. But for now... just pushing the pedals. Keep your eye here for videos and pictures forth coming.

I am also aiming to run the 2010 Burlington City Marathon, and fast at that. Scotty will set the standard in February, so I'll test my legs in May following his results. I am looking forward to it. The competitive nature in my will shine through. I don't know if I necessarily enjoy "running" but I love racing. The idea of running to race is great. The idea of running for health and fun is dull and boring and unexciting. But in Montpelier there is a 1 mile race next summer, FAST. I really like to race... and I don't know how to not race.

Look for a rally of endurance mountain bike races in 2010, some epic road events, like the return of the Killington Stage Race, Battenkill, Gila?, GMSR... Maybe a couple of others. Everyone will get to see the Circle A #150 in all it's glory out slaying the roads. I'm FINALLY getting my fit more and more dialed in. Thanks to Jack from Specialized for loaning me a saddle to demo. Just getting all the pieces in place can be pretty tedious. Slow and steady.

Bike fit is a trying thing. I think a lot of people think that's it's a magic formula that once they're fit, everything will be perfect. But that's not the case. We don't know what we don't know. If you know what I mean. As in, if you're feet are killing you after 2 hours every ride, you might not notice that your hips are rotated the wrong way, and you're sitting to up ride and losing power into your pedal stroke. You change you shoes, dialed. Now your lower back hurts because you're rotating your hips, etc etc. My position is now dialed, my shoes are dialed, but I need to figure out this saddle problem. The Flites and SLRs I was riding were perfect for my too short position. But now I'm slung low and I can't sit on them comfortably and it causes my hips to TWIST to the side. Plus, I'm in the hunt for a new pedal set-up for next year. Crank Bros isn't making the road pedal any more and I think it's time to move on. The new Time iClick looks AMAZING. The easiest pedal to get into EVER. Along with the lowest stack height of any pedal out there. More details to follow...

This is a pretty boring post, but believe me... there are exciting things at hand.

Also, I need someone's help building a website. Trades for something can be figured out. But I need your help... Get at me!

Go ride your bike.

Oh! And I know there are a couple of people who might wonder, but the Jetta is still kicking ass and taking names. It's dropped 2 inches and handles GREAT. It doesn't like starting in the cold and it needs a serious washing before winter, but it's rolling steady.

Riding all day...

2009-11-23T08:43:00.002-05:00

Curses, foiled again!
So yesterday, I was supposed to head out on the Sunday night ride, but fell asleep in the afternoon and awoke to find that in the last couple of weeks, I hadn't charged my lights. So that wasn't happening.
My leg injury, is getting better, but is still sensitive. It has kept me off the road bike, but on the bmx bike having fun.

Last monday, I rode with Matt for hours upon hours. It was a long day of riding in November. Also, the weather hovered in the 50s all day long and I actually had a minor Sunday burn by the time I limped my way home. What was great about it, was riding for so long. I can't remember the last time I spent nearly the entire day riding. Not a mixture of errands and riding, or washing the car and riding. Not trying to fit riding in around everything else going on that day, but instead fitting in everything else around riding. It was fantastic. Amazing. Refreshing, recharging. Great. I love riding bikes. And when I woke up this morning, to yet ANOTHER 50 degree November day full of sunshine, I was pretty excited. To push the pedals around in circles. I love riding bikes, all kinds of bikes. If there is an opportunity to go on a ride, I won't hesitate. And today will kick off how many days in a row can I ride, at least a little bit. To and from work at the absolute minimum. Should be pretty great.

Not too much other news happening around this way. I spent oodles of money this month on glasses. While exciting, is awfully expensive. However, they were getting to be near 5 years old. THAT said, my prescription hasn't changed, so I will be setting up, in a completely selfish manner, the Adam St. Germain Laser Eye Surgery Fund. With a goal of 2011. The federal government will most likely be the largest contributor by way of my tax returns. So, here's looking forward (ha!) to that.

If anyone hears from John Packer, I have been trying to e-mail him, but to no response.

Also! In a couple of weeks I am going to see a postural restoration specialist. What? Well, I don't know exactly what they do and/or how they do it. But I'm going to find out and I will be sure and let you know. I have been tracking down some missing links in my bike position and power output and after getting expertly fit by Sean Whipkey at Skirack I am now on the hunt for some other solutions. Yes, I realize that the website doesn't talk about our fit services, but really, Sean has done the BEST fit, by far, of anyone else I have ever worked with. Now it's a matter of swapping saddles and straightening out some postural problems. That way, as soon as this leg issue clears itself up, I will bag to smashing the pedals and smiling. In the mean time, I will just be smiling.

I had a meeting with the Director of Parks and Rec about building some dirt jumps, and surprise surprise, and he was actually very much into the idea and brought some of his own ideas to the table. So currently, we are looking for a business or private party in the South Burlington area willing to lend their land or space to the city. We will have a license agreement and the city will provide all insurance measures and maintenance needed, so if you know anyone interested, send them my way.

And now... it's almost bike riding time.

On the injured list!?!?

2009-11-02T08:07:00.002-05:00

Well, I might not be as worse off as Suitcase but that doesn't make me feel any better.
My racing wheels are being hung up for the season. You're welcome. I kid, I kid.
I'm pretty bummed about it. I did some damage to my groin muscle, or hip, or leg joint in general and putting the gas pedal down isn't really an option. After a year of battling my car and battling colds it's a bit of a bummer to end this way.
However, that said, I'm pretty sure EVERY mtb race I entered netted me a podium spot. So that's pretty awesome. Keep your eyes on the start list of the marathon and endurance mountain bike events for next year. VT 50, Hampshire 100, 24 of Pats Peak, 24 of Great Glen, etc etc.

On a lighter note, I'm still pedaling around, thought lightly, and I was able to get out last night for a night ride. I traded my Specialized Sirrus, some may know it as Rivah Bike, for a Nite Rider SlickRock 900. The SlickRock is a border line obscenely brightly light. It's NiteRider's last remaining HID and holy hell is it bright. Like I said, possibly obscene. But it was really fun to ride with. I had my older 10W Halogen on my helmet and it was a laughable comparison. So while I wasn't riding particularly fast, I was still riding and it was great.

Night riding, for those of you who may not have taken part is pretty special. It's easy to spook yourself if you're alone, so I reccomend riding with a buddy. In truth, it's probably better to ride with a friend in general, less you end up mooshed up by the side of the trail somewhere. We don't want that. But it's a blast. The most tame trails can seems gruelly at night and things that you might not normally ride, go by without even a blink. It's really a great way to add a new perspective to some trails you may know blind folded.

That's it for now, short and sweet.
Please everyone ride safely. Seems like all sorts of people are getting injured just riding.

When Mountain Biking became Trail Riding

2009-10-13T06:57:00.002-05:00

First, the Providence Cross weekend was awesome. After battling the depths of a cold all week, I wasn't feeling particularly snappy, but the heckles, and occasional cheer, made it all worth while. Thanks!
The mini recap on those two days of racing goes like this:
Saturday, drive south, have marginally good start given starting position (last) and then begin to go backwards from there. Tim Johnson politely laps me on his way to a dominating victory. Party at the Fez with Mrs. A Team Gabe Lizzie and Ricky. Get beat in Cribbage by dad's lady friend and Mrs. A Team. Sleep.
Day Two.
Awake! Feel tired. Eat great breakfast at little place with mediocre coffee. Head to venue. Miss warm-up time. Change in the middle of field. Ride bike around. Stash bag with These guys (Thanks Bart) Say hi to two lazy greyhounds and Team Sam. Hope that I will make it half way before I get lapped. Tim Johson with Jamie Driscol in tow politely scoop by in the "Fish Bowl" section of the course. Done.

I left most of my cold (I hope) all over the course in Providence and I am looking forward to the next one. Maine? Paradise Cross Frenzy? Creepy Cross? Not sure.
Feeling better each day though, and that's a good thing.

In other news.
Does anyone remember when mountain biking was just that? Mountain biking. Before I whine about this, I am grateful for the advances in the mountain biking world, and the more the merrier, it's a big party, but part of me misses the good ol' days of mountain biking.
When a downed log stayed a downed log until 10+ years later it was rotten and mooshy and 4 guys pushed it aside. When a mud bog was a mud bog and you fought your way to the other side. When there were trails that just went bizarrely straight up or straight down and each year they were more challenging.
Nemba Fest was awesome by the way.
Though, at NEMBA Fest the "short loop" wasn't a mountain bike ride. It was a dirt road/carriage road ride. Just because someone only wants to ride 5 miles doesn't mean they don't want single track. Doesn't mean they can't go uphill.
It's funny how mountain biking has changed. Everything becomes more and more buffed out, and armored and longer lasting and "better". And while we're talking about it, three cheers for all that hard work.
That said, the beauty of mountain biking was that it changed, it ebbed and flowed, and your ride was dictated by how the weather had been that week. Now, you can ride the same trail rain or shine, and it will be nearly the same. Maybe that root is slippery, or you take the left line down the rock face instead of the right, but it doesn't change. Trail crews and volunteers nip and tuck and preen and polish and clear and haul and rake and the trails are amazing to ride, but they don't change.
Just once I want a tree to fall across a trail and for it to be left there. Undisturbed, and then it's up to the rider to figure out how to get over it.
I used to be able to clear logs that were over axle height. Somewhere in the realm of 20"+. But I don't know if I can anymore because there aren't any left on the trail.

Mountain biking used to be hard.
And part of me wishes it still was, but the other part of me loves the idea that more people can come out and get on the trails. That if you can pedal a bicycle you can ride some of the best trails around. Saxon Hill has some of the best twisty turny fun Pine Stand single track I have been on, and I think ANYONE would have a blast pedaling around out there. But it's just different.
And with all these changes comes better technology and better bikes and lighter and faster and shinier. And that's all great. And I love it. And it's a by-product of more people wanting to play. And I'm all for it, because better bikes are more fun to ride.
So I'll ride the trails and I'll occasionally pine for the old school and I'll go to trail days and I'll get more people stoked on riding and it will be awesome.
But when I have a small chunk of land and build some trails, they're going to be hard. It won't be trail riding, it will be mountain biking. And you might need at 6 inches of that travel after all.

Let the young sport flourish.

Side note:
Thanks to whoever was in (Williston, VT) recently and flagged the trail. It would be impossible to ride right now without the visual aid. Kind of like connecting the dots.

Oh and looky here, another one bites the dust
Cycling is one wild wild roller coaster.

St. Germain System Cometh

NEMBA FEST!

2009-09-29T09:25:00.002-05:00

So,
After a couple of weeks of resting, and candy eating, I headed down to the Waterville CX race tempted by the idea of a Snow Pit. As it turned out, by the time my race started, the snow pit was more of just a little puddle. But the idea remained. I think Curtis and the gang did a pretty bang up jump putting the race together. The race was SHORT and fast and fun. What more could you ask for?
I didn't end up getting to the Bradbury 12 hour race as I missed the registration. Lameville. But hey, that's the way it goes. This past weekend was Ali's birthday and we went to this pretty awesome zip line/ropes course place in New Hampshire. It's just down the road from the Polar Caves for those of you that know where that is. It was a little rainy, but perfect since we then had the whole place to ourselves. So that was fun! It was Ali's birthday too! We're still leisurely looking for a new apartment... no news there.

In racing news, this is what's coming up.
10/4 NEMBA Fest at Bradbury Mtn Stage park in NH! I love the trails there, so I hope the weather holds out. It's been a long time since I've ridden those trails. Dee and Frate are supposed to be making an appearance as well, so it will be good to catch up with those guys. Someone tell Frate to bring my front wheel! (please)
10/10-11 RI Cross weekend. Maybe, have to look into the expense factor here. The courses at Roger Williams Park are fantastic, but I just dropped some coin into fixing the Jetta, so we'll see. New front struts and mountain, new front rotors and pads. Getting there.
10/18 MTB race out in NY
10/25 Maine Cross
10/31 With any luck this will be a double whammy day. There is Creepy Cross here in VT which sounds great, but then there is a 9:00pm 7 mile MTB time trial over in NY. I think I can just managed to get from one to the other. We shall see. Haven't really looked at the details.
11/1?
11/7-8 North Hampton, might show-up for Sunday
11/29 Sterling
12/4-5 NBX Cross, I think by far my favorite of the year.

I got lost in Hineburg Town Forest the other day. Which was great. Ask Peter Gengler how fun the trails there are. He knows. It's that perfect Mt Biking time of year where the humidity disappears, the bugs disappear and the dirt turns into that super tacky, fantasticly fast magic dirt. That's right... magic.
I tried running the tires on the GT Marathon up at 30 PSI and they felt like I was riding on wooden wagon wheels. Seriously awful. So I dropped them back down to 25 or even a little less and it was game time. I also dropped the pressure in the rear shock a touch and the bike was actually climbing BETTER. Can't beat it.

Alright, so I'll try and grab some photos and a good report about the NEMBA Fest and that will be that.

Oh, Zebra bike is for sale. Well, the frame is anyway. Frame fork headset DA brakes. E-mail. 51cm

Useable trophy

2009-09-01T07:27:00.000-05:00

The hardware.
Waiting for the water to heat up so I can press those grinds! Press 'em!

Hop on the elevator, stop at the top

2009-08-31T19:03:00.002-05:00

Race To the Top of Vermont is a race held on Mt. Mansfield Toll road.
First, I didn't even know Mt. Manfield HAD a toll road. Second, I didn't know it was 150 years old. That's old.
The event was a blast! It was perfect weather, healthy competition, amazing BBQ and some top notch raffle prizes. Not to mention a sweet tech tee and guide book with signing up.
That is a trend I'd like to see continue in the racing world. It seems to be the norm in VT. A tech tee. I don't really need any more T-shirts, cotton and not tremendously useful. But another tech tee, sign me up please. These get used and abused and recycled much more often than my t-shirts. Just saying.

So the toll road is 4.3 miles long and averages we'll say 10%. I can't actually find a listing anywhere with the stats. Point it, it's not easy. There are some silly sections that approach 20%. Honest. And there are switch backs, and some bizarre nearly flat sections along the way.

The Jetta left Burlington, piloted by myself, and carrying Ben Coleman and Alex Cox. 75% of the Great Glen awesome team.
We left early, stopped at Dunkin donuts, because nothing else was open before 7:00am. It is Vermont afterall. It's funny to me that I ALWAYS drink my coffee black, UNLESS it's from Dunkin, in which case I get it with cream and sugar. Which thinking about sounds gross, but it tastes so good.
Anyway, we depart, headed south to Stowe. Topping out at 62 MPH on the highway. 3 full grown guys, three bikes and an EZ-UP tent on the roof can cause some serious drag. Not to mention that my brakes are less than fantastic at the moment. So I wanted to give myself PLENTY of room to stop.
Anyway, we get there sign-in, get a free guide book and some goodies, then head to the parking lot. We had plenty of time to hang out in the sun, and eye some the stranger and older mt. bikes that were in the lot.
Oh yeah, let me not forget. This is a hill climb race, limited to MOUNTAIN Bikes only. And on top of that 2.0 tires or bigger. While the GT Carbon Marathon is a stellar climber, it's no road bike.
Dressed, embrocated, bags packed for the top and ready to go. The good thing about unsanctioned type events, is that there are few rules. So iPods are completely legit. Love it.
This is only the second year they have done this event.
It benefits the Catamount Trail Association. The Catamount Trail is a cross country skiing trail that runs the length of VT. Awesome.
Anyway, the first 1/10th of a mile are paved, after that, it's all gravel, dirt and rocks. Ready to get rad.
I had no idea what to expect as I have never been up this road. I have never been to the top of Mt. Mansfield. Come to find out, I still haven't been to the top because this road stops at the top of the ridge, there is still a bit of elevation before you get to the peak.
The race took off pretty hot and I followed the leaders. After the first 400 meters or so we had sorted out a pretty fast looking little group of 10-15. I was deep into the sounds of Ursula 1000 and just focused on pedaling.
Away we went, up, up, up into the clocks.
A second surge came from the front and two guys split off, I stayed steady, thinking that I should ride smart because I didn't know what was around the corner, if I could recover, if I was already screwed. So I rode my own race.
After a mile or so, I could still see the two leaders, then some other guys, then me. I was roughly 8th at this point.
Then some guy on a wild looking single speed and baggy knickers come flying by. I mean, flying, like he was sprinting for the win in downtown Burlington.

Side Note: Did I win? That just showed up in my mail box. WTF? From This guy He also has a Scott Addict for sale. Cheap.

Moving on. The baggy knickers guy killed it. I don't know where he finished exactly, but it was in front of me.
Then after 2 miles, there were gaps established and some other single speed guy came out of no where. WTF? I wasn't having it, and after a little while reeled him and 2 other guys back in and scurried away towards the clouds.
Little did I know, I was being followed. By the military. The Army in fact. Army of One indeed good sir!
Nothing really happen between mile 2 and 3. It mellowed out, there was some gnarly ledges off to the left and the clouds were starting to tickle my nose.
I huffed, I puffed, then I hit something... No, it wasn't a wall, though it did look like it. Around mile 3, things got outrageous. The gradient when through the roof all of a sudden, and the switch backs were graduated radiuses that ended in death.
And that Army guy was still behind me. He surged up to me at one point and I refused to look the enemy in the eye. I waited until his front wheel was even with my front skewer, upshifted 2 cogs and bang! I scurried away. Turns out the Army guy is tougher than I thought.
Over the next 1.2 miles, he would repeat the surging process a couple more times, and I would pounce each time, trying to get to the clouds first.
Then...
He caught me out. He came even with me, I slammed it, and then he REslammed it. WHAT!? Beat at my own game. There were 100 meters or so left and got around me. And stayed around me. It was awesome.

The great irony being that I spent the entire 39:25.00 climbing one mountain on one bike while thinking about an entirely different mountain on a different bike. App Gap, I got one for you.

Overall, I was 7th. In my age group, I was 3rd. The exciting part was the awesome coffee mug that I got for 3rd. I will show you, soon. But not this post.
The event was great, and more than doubled in it's two years running. Come do it next year. Borrow a cheap mountain bike and put your road pedals on it, that was the trend this year any way. I'm talking about Specialized Hardrocks, Gary Fisher Tarpins, Trek 800s. 32lb bikes!
The guys that won of course, where riding much lighter fancier mountain bikes. Everyone in front of me had AT LEAST 5 pounds on my bike. Hmph.

Point is, the event raised a bunch of money for a great organization and lots of people had a lot of fun. The raffle prizes were fantastic (I won 3 pounds of Green Mountain Coffee, well, coffee.)

GMSR, ripping and ready. Keep and eye on the ol' Twitter

One thing triggers another...

2009-08-20T19:28:00.002-05:00

The ever riding Peter Gengler called me yesterday, told me he was in town and asked for some riding advice.
I pointed him towards some great trails, that I really enjoy, when I can make it out to them.
I told him about Fellowship of The Wheeland how they do all the trail maintenance around here, and that they try to map everything. Peter then asked the obvious question "Can you get me a copy of the map?" To which I replied, "You need to be a member..." And I trailed off and realized that I was currently NOT a member, and I felt a little embarrassed.
The funnier part, to me, is that I'm still a NEMBA member, which is great, but I forgot to sign-up for Fellowship. The irony being that I support the fundraisers and attend the events, and certainly ride the trails. So this morning, I bought a membership, and if anyone else every comes to VT and wants to ride, give me a call. i can set you up.
Peter called me to say that he thoroughly enjoyed the trails, and I'm pretty sure he has pretty high standards, so that was great to hear.
Nial, if you read this, we'll be in touch soon.
Irons in the fire and all that...

In bike news, I have gotten the GT Marathon even more dialed than it was before. I am psyched! Tubeless tires are being run at 25-28 PSI and they feel amazing! I am blown away each time I get on the bike.

This morning I rode in Jericho at Mobbs Hill on the Americana Trail. I rode the Americana Trail a few years back while visiting Ali one summer and fell in love. This was the first time I had been back since. It's a very small space but they do a great job packing in the features and amazing trails. Which I think is generally true for most of the riding in the surrounding areas. I am super excited for fall mtbing because that's when the dirt gets STICKY and it's game-on.

I SHOULD be attending the NEMBA fun ride this weekend in Arcadia. That's right... Rhode Island. Scotty and Abby are moving to a far away foreign place that is sun baked and far away. Though the plus side to this, is that next year I will be at the Tour of the Gila, again. And that I am excited about. Because that race is RAD!

What else is coming up?
Well... It looks like this... and in a moment I may even update the racing schedule at the bottom of this blog.
This weekend, party, ride MTB on super tech NE harshness.
Next weekend 8/30 Race to the top of VT. Race up Mt. Mansfield on the Toll Rd.
8/4 GMSR. It's on.
Something...
12 hours of Bradbury, if I can still get registered!

And that's it!
Go Ride!

NEMBA Raffle 2009

2009-08-15T19:42:00.003-05:00

I just bought my tickets for 2009.
Look at all this great stuff they are giving away!!

You should Go Here and buy tickets of your own. Be sure and thank the NEMBA folks next time you see them for kicking ass and taking names.

Also, next NEMBA Group Ride is scheduled for August 23rd at Arcadia. Be there. I just might be there too...

Back on the horse

2009-08-13T06:18:00.002-05:00

Well,
After recovering from the 24 Hours of Great Glen, I am feeling much better. It took quite awhile for me to be back to normal, but I suppose that comes with the territory. I am looking forward to 1) GMSR and 2) 12 Hours of Bradbury (in Maine).
That one I will probably attempt solo, need to fix my light situation first though, so we'll see what happens between now and then.

In other news, I was in the news.Tax Free Day
I didn't tell anyone about this because I was a little nervous about sounding like a complete goof. Turns out, I was only a half goof. There was a short clip on Fox News last night at 10:00 that I caught. I was told it would be on the website for later viewing, but so far all I can find is the story. Stay tuned.

Nothing happening this weekend, working both days.
Next weekend Ali and I will be headed south to RI for the great Scotty/Abby send-off affair. I'm partially excited and partially in protest. Mostly for selfish reasons.
There is a small, small chance that I'll go go MA on Sunday to do the Treasure Valley MTB race. Did I mention it's small?

Following that, I am thinking about doing the Race to the Top of VT. A mtb hill climb, on a dirt road, up Mt. Mansfield. The highest peak in VT. Sounds fun.
Then of course, let the smooshing begin, GMSR returns with a CAT 2 only edition. I will say this... I have been riding more than my Harley in preparation.

And some blah blah blah.

Did I mention how rad the GT Marathon was for the, well, marathon race? I mean, it's in the name I suppose, but it was incredible. Now if only mine was a little bit lighter...

Another weekend...

2009-08-11T13:25:00.007-05:00

Another podium.
It's always fun to be able to say that. Am I right or am I right?

Let me first say that the GT Dirt Coalition was there in force in all sorts of different categories, so that was cool. I spoke with Peter for a couple minutes and seemed like he was having a blast. Check out there stories: A SSed carbon Zaskar, hot!, Peter in the sport 24, Half the pain, all the fun
So that was cool.
Also, the Carbon Marathon is one lean mean purpose built machine. I felt comfortable, fast, and safe the entire race. It's always a treat to have the right tool for the job. And! Finally I completed my conversion to tubeless and I was speechless! I think I ran the front at 28psi and the rear at 30psi and they felt STUCK to the ground constantly, I was cleaning sections at night that other guys were walking during the day. Awesome.

24 Hours of Great Glen, amazing. Let me say that I have wanted to do a 24 hour race for a LONG time, and a few weeks ago Ben Coleman asks, "You want to race Great Glen?" I said sure, then came the process of finding a fourth rider. Which Ben successfully did in the form of this guy: Another UVM-er
So the team was, me, ANOTHER UVM-er and of course Ben'Jammin (a Former UVMer)

And we were set. Alex had done this before, but the rest of us were running blind. It turned out to be a ton of fun and in all honesty, I can't say why. In retrospect I rode 9 laps for a total time on the bike of 6:15 or so and a mere 2.2 hours of sleep. And it was COLD! However, it was a blast! It was kind of like doing 9 mini cyclocross races. Sort of. But not.

The time line goes something like this:
Work at Skirack(.com) till close, it was busy.
Hop in Skirack(.com) can and head south.
Stop for gas.
Drive on really foggy, really dark, twisty roads most of the way there. Stop for firewood and ice cream snacks and beer. Get warned about moose. Don't see moose, but lots of deer.
Mapquest claims 2.5 hours. Takes closer to 4 hours. Arrive around 11:00pm. Set up base camp awesome. Settle in. Base camp in the AM
A view of Tent City from the Great Glen visitor's center across the street.
Drink a beer, eat some snacks, not sure what to do. It gets cold. Then it gets REALLY cold.
Head for bed. Shiver the night through. Dam it's cold! In the 40s cold.
Wake up at 7:30 or so, start making breakfast (oatmeal) and anxiously await the start of the day. Test lights, install mounts, fill bottles. Hang out, eat some more, drink a lot.
Head to racer's meeting at 10:00am. Alex and Scott head off to Wallie world for some lacking supplies. Success as: ketchup, bowls, utensils, pasta sauce (we had 7 pounds of pasta, but no sauce), doughnuts (necessary), a frying pan, and some other odds and ends.
I sit around... soaking in the sun, trying to warm-up. It's still maybe 55. And that's a big maybe.
Time passes.
Then we head to the start. It's a Le Mans style start and it's a LONG Le Mans style start. Alex is pumped to do it, so off we go.
Everyone lined up. They ran AROUND that pound in the foreground.
Spot the Elvis. Lots of spectators, support folks, and other racers clamored for a good view of the start.
Scott and I made it into the foreground of a newspaper journalists photo, and were quickly interviewed. I can't find it online though.

Anyway, then the waiting began. I was up 2nd and was dressed and in the tent and ready to go.
We were doing a lap each as hard as we could manage. The fastest I was able to muster would be high 37 minutes, and the fastest lap of the day was 35:14, Fast! The course was taylor made for big wheels, though it was a toss up for hardtail or not. There was A LOT of dirt road/carriage road stuff, but the rough stuff was rough. I was plenty happy to riding the Marathon. It never felt like overkill. Except for when I had lights strapped on, it gained a few hefty pounds.

The course was muddy in places, but 100% ridable if you had a sharp eye for a good eye and the power to get through it. I successfully rode one whole lap with no dabs, and it felt amazing. There were some gnarly climbs and some super fast sections. In short, the course was a blast.

The team only suffered a couple of minor set backs, Scott's pedal fell off at one point and he lost about 10 minutes on the lap, and ALL of my lights died during the 4th of my 4 night laps. (We were doing 2 lap shifts at night.) I rode 6.5 miles of the 8.5 mile course with nothing more than my handlebar mounted Princeton Tec EOS. It was bright, but I couldn't ride very fast. The fact that I could ride at all was pretty impressive to say the least. Thanks Princeton Tec! There was also a high bright moon, so that helped.
I lost about 5 minutes on that lap.
It was a dog fight through and through. We never let off the pressure and kept banging out laps as fast as we were able. Come day break the on Sunday we were still putting in solid 40 minute laps and gaining back time. Somewhere between 7:00pm Saturday and 4:00AM sunday we had dropped to 22 minutes behind 2nd place in the expert field. Unexceptable!
We battled and battled and battled and dragged it back to within 5 minutes at one point until it slipped back out to 13 minutes at the end. We had 2 laps on 4th place, so we were only ever looking forward.

In the end, we finished 3rd in our Category 13 minutes behind 2nd place with a total of 35 laps and 4th place overall. The only pro team that entered did a combined 37 laps, and the first place expert team did 36 laps.
When were planning to come to the race we knew we thought doing 35 laps would put us on the top step and we needed to average 40 minutes per lap to make it happen. In the end, we did our 35 laps, starting the last lap with 2 minutes to spare. And came close to the average of 40. Either way, we did pretty awesome for our first one.

I was super excited to put the GT Marathon in the ring where it belonged, and it delivered 100%. I'm also thankful to Skirack.com for helping the team get to the event as it is pretty darn expensive. My teammates at the event for kicking ass the entire time and having fun. And naturally, all the folks at Great Glen for putting on an amazing event and making it all happen smoothly. Woo!

Side note:
Some other exciting things happen on the Autoroad while were there. A motorcyclist had a mishap and needed to be air-vac'd out. And on Saturday, an Audi burst into flames and was completely burned out by the time we saw it come back down on the back of a flat bed.
T-9 works very well in place of lighter fluid when your firing is sputtering. You CAN cook hamburgers in a frying pan on an open fire and NOT melt the handle. Coke tastes amazing at any hour of the day/night. It is much harder to eat and drink during the 24 race than you think.

I'm really into these marathon type events after actually having competed in one and will be heading to the 12 hours of Bradbury Mt come September. Or so goes the plan.

Over and out...

No race weekend

2009-08-02T08:51:00.005-05:00

Well, it's Sunday and no races will be contested this weekend.
Fort Rock Revenge was cancelled in NH due to some mucky trails. I shouldn't say cancelled, more like postponed to September. Which is a bummer because the teaser video looked great. I was going to post a link to the video, shot from someones helmet cam, but I can't find it at this moment.
Suffice it to say that it look technical, and mean, and fun as hell.

There was the Bow Road Race today in Bow, NH which I considered momentarily, but after some significant changes to my road bike position earlier this week, I don't think I quite have enough come on the bike to jump into the ring with it just yet.

Nest weekend is the 24 Hours of Great Glen which is guaranteed to be interesting. Hopefully fun and exciting. I have long since wanted to do a 24 hour event and now it's about to happen. I feel confident that the GT Marathon is going to be a fantastic weapon of choice.

Keep an eye out for the Dirt Coalition tent next to the Skirack (red) tent somewhere at the event.
Like I mentioned before, you can follow the action on Twitter at Tweet tweet

I will be riding with Ben Coleman, Alex Cox, and a yet to be named 4th rider... it could be you!

Also, we are on the lookout for:
A camp stove
A fire pit (fire bowl) you know what I mean...half a barrel will do just fine.
Ben might need lights...
A helmet cam for some gnar footage
Any and all advice

In other news, it's still Sunday and I'm not racing, and we'll see how hte weather shapes up, it's a bit windy at the moment, but Ali and I might head up to App Gap for a short stint on the long trail. Which would be awesome. Not so awesome if there were thunderstorms.

Last Tuesday I went out and did the GMBC practice crit. These guys
They hold a practice crit, and a bunch of free time trials, and a wealth of group rides all season long. It's a pretty great group. Anyway, the course for the crit is bone flat. FLAT. Let me say the biggest incline on the course are the man hole covers. Seriously.
Not only that, but it's short. As in, laps take 40 seconds. It's in contention with Attelboro for shortest course, and if my memory serves this place would fit inside Attelboro. It's a close call though.
All left turns, and some decent riders show up. Not many riders, but a decent amount. It was fun to get into a group and go fast in circles. I didn't know too many of the guys there, but apparently a handful of them were real deal back in the day. According to this guy any way, The mayor of Burlington
It was fun, I went for the 1 lap to go attack, Eric Tremble's tires could be heard skidding through the last corner behind me and I sat up. Like I said, I didn't know many people there and didn't want to end up in the grass.
As it turns out, everyone can ride their bike well, and no incidents were had. Like I said, it was fun.

Wednesday I was going to head out to Catamount for the weekly mtb ride, but decided not to as a late afternoon thunderstorm struck us down. As it turned out, come to find later, the thunder storm barely kissed Catamount and they averted disaster and the race went off without a hitch.
Amazing!
There's always next week.

The Jetta is back and running reasonably well, and I drove it to work in the rain on Friday and promptly got a parking ticket. Isn't it great being a car commuter?

Pedal, pedal, pedal
Oh... Cat 2 only event this year at GMSR, and then some serious fall mtb thrashing, followed by some serious fall cyclocross mayhem, and then! Vacation! Where... TBD

New news!

2009-07-30T10:43:00.002-05:00

Well, no not really.
I just learned that the Fort Rock Revenge Mt. Bike race that I wanted to head to this Sunday has been bagged. Soggy conditions pose a threat to the course, and the conservation society has decided to move the race out to September 27th. Probably a wise decision on their part.

Remember the days when I had a car? Well Fuh-getta the Jetta is officially fixed. I am going to pick it up later this afternoon. Amazing. A little long in the bill but hey, what are you going to do. At least it's back on the road, for the moment any way.

I was looking forward to this weekends mtb race but I suppose, since I haven't completely my tubeless conversion just yet, I got my order in a little late, it might be for the best. There was a brief second where I may have had a slot to race Montreal Quebec, but I missed the window on that one. Thanks for the thought though. Next year?

I am excited to bike riding, racing. I am excited for cross. I am just all around excited.
So with the Fort Rock Revenge race squashed, I'm not sure what comes between now and the 24 hours of Great Glen.
Speaking of!

Two things to note. I have struck an agreement with Skirack and you'll be able to follow the entire 24 hours of Great Glen on my soon to be develops Twitter account. I'm not 100% on how to use it yet, but I'll give it my best shot.
Also!
We are search of a 4th man for the 4 man team. E-mail me for all the details, or feel free to call. We're looking to race the elite category, though we're not opposed to the Pro category. We also plan on eating a lot of smore's and chocolate milk. It will be garunteed fun.

A couple more things I am looking for:
Camp stove.
4th member of 4 man team for Great Glen
A touch more sunshine, though we have been doing a lot better lately.
Someone from RI who is going to be at Bow Road Race or Great Glen that can deliver a front disc wheel to me.
x.9 or x.0 short cage rear der.
BB7 front brake caliper.

Check my E-bay collection of stuff and help me pay for my car. ID is JanitorJermz43

Over and out.

How to Pile-drive yourself

2009-07-23T07:36:00.004-05:00

Let me first be clear about one thing, I support all forms of cycling, biking, bike riding, bicycling, bike driving, whatever. If you're into it, awesome.
That said, I don't necessarily support all cyclists, or in some cases, people with bikes.
Bikes are amazing, and everyone should ride one, but that doesn't mean I have to like you for it.

Moving along... fixed gear mania continues to sweep the nation. For instance, check out this madness:

My linking skills are pretty weak... check out UrbanOutfitters.com for their new bike shop.

SERIOUSLY?

And why is that you can get a better deal on a bike there than a pair of jeans. Crazy!

Then there is this video, which started this train of thought. Please, if your going to be "stunting" or thrashing or shredding or killing it, make sure you have the right equipment. And that I mean in all sincerity.

What brought this up even more was the past couple of weeks at the bike shop. We have the Tour on live every day and then it repeats through out the day due to DVR. Hot. It's also in HD. Double awesome. Point is, I field A LOT of questions about different things, the first is usually "Is Lance winning?" Which brings us to a couple of amazing points. First of which is, EVERYONE knows who Lance is. And by default has a little bit of understanding of what cycling is. Little bit. Lance has done a tremendous amount for cycling. Go lance.
The other fact is, there are so many aspects of cycling that make it completely unique to any other team sport. Answering peoples questions about eating, peeing, teams, strategies and going uphill is almost more enlightening for me. When is the last time you saw Keven Garnet stop and piss on the side of the court? Or Bret Farve pull some foil wrapped potatoes out of the back of his jersey. Baseball is interesting if that if someone else starts a fight, his team will rally around him. In cycling, if someone attacks, the teammates will do their best to help you out.
I just wanted to say that it's fun talking about cycling. And I love everything about it. From the people riding their bikes to get ice cream cones to the people riding to South America from Alaska. (There was a guy, I met his father in April and followed his blog for a little while, but have lost the link. Then I met the son once he returned home.)
Point is...

It's all bikes.

Riding the two wheels

2009-07-22T21:50:00.002-05:00

Steel horse, aluminum horse, borrowed carbon fiber horse, Harley horse... two wheels.
Actually, I haven't been on the Harley since coming home from Fitchburg. Rain has been threatening pretty regularly, and with GMSR being a CAT 2 only affair... well, I need to get my legs a moving.
I've hashed out some minor details, such as digging up a cycling computer, shimming my feet to near perfection, beginning to dial in my fit on these foreign bikes. It seems like I haven't been on the same bike consistently for quite awhile. Which I'm ok with, since the crank length has been pretty consistent, minus one long ride on the R3. But that bike felt great regardless.
I have been borrowing a Cervelo Soloist. Needless to say, I'm digging it. I could easily see where the S3 would be out of this world. But you know...

Horror at Harding Hill. Did I already do this update? I can't remember... I just checked. I didn't.
Oh, yard sale update. Ali and I cleaned up! Literally and figuratively. The yard sale was a huge success and then we cashed in some change that we have been saving for a LONG time and it was amazing how much money 80 pounds of change turns into. Vacation, here we come! Well... in the winter any way. Vacation suggestions, please send them along.

This Saturday mean Lindine is getting married! Awesome. Ali and I will be in attendance, as well as some other Targetraining graduates, which should make for a pretty good time. I hope he and Jess are not stressed and are looking forward to their fun day. I also hope that the weather is kick ass.

Back to the race report.
It was a perfectly sunny 75 degree day in Sunapee NH. Ben Coleman and a friend of his, Seth, and myself all headed down early in the AM. It turned out to be less than 2 hours away and we were riding in style in a loaned Toyota Highlander. No traffic in this here North Country.
So... it has been awhile since I have done a mass start mtb race. In all honesty, I don't know if I can easily remember one where they just started ALL the experts together. Men, women, juniors, whoever. As long as you were an expert, you were on the line at 10:00am. I would also like to thank the folks who put on the race because it may be 15 years old, but it was as fun as ever.
Do I really need to mention that the start was chaos? You can figure that one out. It was. I was almost run into the woods by a 200 pounds gorilla, or clydesdale, it was tough to tell in the shadows. The race wasn't a particularly technical affair, but there were a couple of challenging aspects, and definitely some mud. I heard horror stories of the mud as I waited in line for the port-a-jon. In all actuality, it wasn't that bad at all. There were a couple of mud bogs to deal with, and they were taxing and tiring and all, but the course was 100% rideable, EVERY lap. Who could complain.
Originally I fancied competing in the elite field, but seeing at the entry fee was nearly $20 more, I opted for the expoert field. The Elites did an extra lap, but I'm ok with only doing 4 laps for 20 miles. Turns out there was cash to be won in the expert field as well. $20 for third place in fact. Enough for gas money and lunch. I was grateful.

The race went like this:
Madness in the start. Attacked by a gorilla, clydesdale, whatever. Ben Coleman gets the jump on me at the start. I was boxed out at the start by Mo Bruno Roy. True story! I was a little rusty, what can I say.
Anyway, away we go, into the woods. First, I want to thank GT for creating one kick ass climbing full suspension machine, and second Fox Racing Shox for creating the MOST brilliant handlebar mounted fork lock-out that I have ever used. Great stuff.
I blast by a bunch of people in the first second which calls for big ring all the time. Big ring equals big speed and it's on. I catch Bo Fuller after a few seconds, he always had a much better start than myself, yell at him to keep-up then immediately bobble in some mud. Lame. We climb for awhile, go through some LONG mud bog, dip, dive, roll, hop, laugh, nearly crash on a downhill then hit a HARD climb. Not that it was technical, but it seemed to go on forever. I accel, literally, on mtb climbs. they suit me particularly well. Up up and away. I pass a ton more guys, hit a second mud bog and miss a right turn that seriously, was as wide as a football and about as obvious. The 3 guys I just passed gave me a shout and around a came. Caught them again on the next climb and got back to business.
Lap 1 done.
I eyeball my GT Dirt Coalition tent which is doubling as a feed zone self-serve station (ziptied bottle cages to the legs work great!) and decided we had put it in a good place. Lock-out, drop the hammer, catch more people. Keep in mind that because of the mass start I can't tell if I'm catching people in my field of beginners at this point. It's a mess. And completely awesome. There is a high speed dip before you hit the first climb and I hit it doing 4000 MPH. That's fast. I also rammed my front wheel into whatever gnome was hiding in the hole. He took a bite out my tire. My front tire. I keep the bike up right. Pedal it up the first part of the climbing thinking about what I am going to do. Dismount, turtle the bike, remove front wheel, peel off disgustly slippery, muddy, dirty tire. Remove... tube. What?! I know... tubeless is coming. I live in the dark ages. Remember that my bike prior to this GT was steel, hard tail, and still had V-Brakes.
I get the new tube in there, along with 1/2 pound of dirt and begin pumping. I have since considered upgrading to C02, because seriously... But so much waste.
As you can imagine, even though it took 72 seconds to get the tire off and the new tube in, it took me another 4 minutes to get the tire up to maybe 30 PSI. I was hesitant to get back on it, but since I was beginning to get passed by children and unicyclists, I thought I should press on.
Over the next 2 laps, I catch back everyone that had passed me and begin to reel in Ben Coleman. Remember that good start... jerk.
I get a water bottle from my self-serve station, which it also looks like I'm in the dark ages about because I saw some pretty sophisticated bottle rigs. But mine was the biggest, for sure.
3 laps down. I start the 4th lap, catch a couple more people. And hit no man's land. No mans land LATE in a race is the worst time to get there, you can easily loss focus. But I started to hear people in the woods up ahead and dropped the ball peen hammer.
Flying now, crushing climbs, no idea if I'm in 96th or 2nd. I don't even know how many people are in my category and age group.
And then...
I'm flying, bobbing, weaving, covered in mud and smiling, and SMASH. The little gnome I met earlier, came back for more. Front tire flat again... though this one was drawn out and I thought maybe I didn't flat. WRONG. Flat as hell.
I take a quick inventory of where I'm at and figure at worst I am 2 miles from the finish. A glance at my watch tells me that the leader should have been finishing in the next 4 minutes. I set off running. Then hit a flat section and ride the bike. Riding a front flat, in the mud, is challenging, and I think you might want to try it to work on your bike handling skills.
I get to another technical (sorta) section and catch a guy riding a rear flat. He was DETERMINED not to let me pass him, since I was running, but I sure as hell made him work for it. He bobbled at one point and I went for it, but he surge, nearly puked on himself and held me off. He earned it.
Then over the crest of the only techi uphill and the finish!
Sweet.
I sit down in the grass, thinking about how much fun that just was.
Then Ben tells me later that I got 3rd! What!!!?? Awesome. He got second. He was ahead by 2 minutes and some change.
I think I could have done well had I not flatted... twice. Tubes!!

We hung out, collected our glory and headed home.
A day well spent.

They weighed some bikes before and then afterward. Turns out the average collection of mud was 4 pounds. 4 pounds!! That's alot of mud. That tips the GT to 30 pounds. Making it 21% of my body weight. Ouch!

Ride today, wedding this weekend, Fort Rock next weekend? Unsure...

See you all soon.

Yard Sale!

2009-07-11T19:44:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow morning!
Come buy our stuff. We are decluttering the domain, and you can help!

7-1.
Tomorrow. Do you really need details?

TONS of size small cycling clothing. TONS.

Aa

Driving that bike like it was an 4X4

2009-07-09T21:20:00.002-05:00

So, rarely does a demo come into the store, or anywhere for that matter, that is ACTUALLY my size. To my amazement the Skirack currently has TWO.
A Serrotta Meivici with Ultegra (seriously?) and a Cervelo R3 with Dura Ace 7900.

One guess as to which I rode on my 6.5 hour "jaunt" through the country side today. The ride included approximately 15 miles of dirt, including some insane golf ball sized gravel, Smuggler's Notch, some other no-name climbs, and over 100 miles. Awesome.
There was a lurking thunderstorm that I had to keep avoiding as well. So, I encountered wet roads, but never got rained on.
Also! Holy hell, how exciting is it to find a bakery that you didn't know existed when you're still over 2 hours from home. Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting thank you very much.

I am tired.
I am training.
I am faster than I had thought for the last 4 months. This is awesome.

Race schedule, yet to be decided... but hopefully I'll be at the Horror at Harding Hill MTB race next weekend.

The Jetta by the way... is still MIA. Who knows... I am looking into other options at this point. Car Share VT is looking mighty good at the moment.

GMSR is a definite yes. Great Glen 24 hours, maybe. Lots happening.

Time to rest...

A weekend spent on two wheels...

2009-07-06T07:50:00.002-05:00

I will most likely go into more detail later...
Fitchburg was this past weekend, as was the birthday of the country.
This also marked the 50th Anniversary of Fitchburg.
Anyway, the breakdown goes something like this...
I did everything you're NOT supposed to do going into, and during the stage race, and you know, it didn't really hamper my efforts very much.

Day 1:
Ride Harley for 4-5 hours in rain/fog to Fitchburg. Arrive. Wet. All dry clothes, now wet. Everything, wet. Find bike. Get dressed, borrow fast wheels with slow tires. Pretend to warm-up and make jokes. Correction, I did no pretend to make jokes, I made them.
Rode TT. Went not so fast, but seriously all things considered, I wasn't last. I felt mediocre and I didn't crash in the rain/fog/cloud. Ride Harley to RI. Get lost along the way, do an extra 30 miles. Hang with Ned. Eat dinner, drink carbohydrate loaded beverages (x3) and go to bed.

Day 2:
Sunshine! Drive to Fitchburg in a small car. Find bike. Get dressed. DO NOT pretend to warm-up. Race starts late, it is hot. Kyle Wolfe Director Superior is in the feed zone, sweet. Ride bike. Gabe gets in break immediately. Sweet. 4 laps to go and field is in a frenzy chasing. Make my way to the front, put the smoosh effect on the chase. Make no friends. Get the hairy eyeball, get questioned, stay there for half a lap. Break gets their gap back, I fade back to the back. Hang out. Average 29.4 MPH for 50 miles. Legs cramping. Ouch. Sit-up on last lap, Gabe's break stays away, he jumps from 8th to 4th overall. Job well done. Drive home, meet up with Ali. Boogie down with friends. More carbohydrate rich beverages (x2.5). Sleep. Hard.

Day 3:
Road race. Originally I thought that without the mountain top finish it would be easier. Wrong. Way faster. Sit in, feel good, not much help to Gabe, get to the front a couple of times, ride through the feedzone at the front once. Hang out. Each snacks, drink 1 millions water bottles. Kyle Wolfe, in the feed zone. It's WINDY. I hide in the field. Chase a couple of could be breakaways... nada. Matt Purdy does the hero ride and stays away ALL day to win solo. Awesome. Also taking the points jersey. I get popped with 4 to go. Then chase down the descent scaring spectators, then navigating through the caravan back into the field. I then get popped with 3 to go, though this time for real. I ride solo for awhile, then with some other guys, then just one other guy, then solo again, and then it's over. And... in doing so, I moved up from 88th to 63rd overall. Sweet.

Day 4:
Crit day. I have done well in this crit before. And if it's back in the future, I will do well there again. I got to the front today, attacked when I knew a GC guy was in trouble and we could move Gabe up a spot, and had some fun. My cornering was not up to it's old standard, but that will come back. And then, on the last lap, I was 15th wheel coming into the last corners, which in reality, it too deep. And someone skipped their rear wheel, and I braked, and I was 30th wheel coming out of the corner, and that was that. Race over. Ate a pizza with Gabe. Hopped on Harley, rode home in the sunshine.
And while the joke was that it was my best Fitchburg overall ever, that's not actually true. Last year I was 37th. Though the year before that I think I was 75th, so...

With few miles in the legs, and not a single road race before this weekend, I finished Fitchburg, nearly comfortably, having a ton of fun, and chomping at the bit for the next race. My mountain bike fitness just got a huge boost (I wanted to say shot in the arm but that seems a bit taboo.)

And now I'm home. Getting ready for worky work.
And it's still sunny

Hot Roddin'

2009-06-23T22:29:00.002-05:00

Here's the thing about hot rods. In my opinion.
Hot rods to me are this romanticized thing. Like, 1950s muscle cars. 1960s bobbers, and early cyclocross bikes. I really enjoy the idea of taking things OFF your bike/motorcycle/car to make it lighter/faster. I mean, that is cool.
Sure, getting new Zipp wheels is cool but it's not all that clever either.
Hot Roddin, is doing with what you have and making it work. "Run what ya brung." As they say.
What's kind of cool about hot rods too, is that you could be a pretty incompetent driver, but if you were smart, you could probably go pretty dam fast.
Unfortunately this isn't true in the bike world. And hot rods are few and far between these days. At least real ones.
Cross bikes at one point were made from the left over pieces from your road season, last decades mountain bike parts, and whatever was on sale at the shop.
My first cross bike was even scarey. But it work. And I raced it. And then I sold it, and someone else raced it.

Getting spoiled with the latest and greatest stinks.

Do you really need Zipp wheels to be competitive in New England bike racing? I don't know...
I bet you could figure out a way to do it on some old school three cross low profile tubulars. Or maybe some Aksiums that you won in a raffle. Or maybe some 6 year old Dura Ace wheels.

This all came about when I was talking about the Zebra at work the other day and I mentioned it's "vintage" 9 speed Dura Ace components, which honestly, have seen a TON of miles. Someone said, "oh you can't ride that stuff." They were being sarcastic because they know I am a total bike junkie. And it got me thinking. Hot rods.
I built the Zebra with parts I had and only bought what I needed. And of all that stuff, the only things I bought NEW were the rear der. and the cables.

And I talked to Gabe today about his bike. And they weigh the same. Just shy of 17. And you know what? That's good enough to be competitive. Now... if I could only find a quality pilot.

But there is something beautiful about sleepers and dark horses. And then I thought about Vino before he was caught doping. And I was picking him to win the Tour when he was on T-Mobile because he was the Dark Horse. Turns out he was just a cheater.
But the point is... he could have. And that's what makes hot rods cool. They could be fast, and they could be light, and you're never really sure. True hot rods don't get dyno tested and computer monitored. They find a straight road, floor and watch the needle. And you know what, it still feels awesome.

Buying speed has never been all that cool. Sure, everyone wants a fast TT bike... but really? How far is the Hour Record? Somewhere in the 50's, yeah? Just a thought.

Hot rods... big engines, rusted floor boards, bald rear tires. Speed.
Because at the end of the day, going fast is what it's all about, and it doesn't matter if you spend $200 or $20000 on your bike. I'd bet we can both hit 60 mph on the back of Middlebury gap.

Mt. Washington, there are some hot rods. Those bikes are hacked, chopped, bobbed, and LEAN. Sure, some of them are ultra-lite custom PARLEEs with Lightweight wheels, and Power Cordz. But then there are guys who just took off their front brake, big ring, bottle cages, and bar tape.

Yeah, hot rods, dark horses, sleepers... that's the stuff that makes it interesting.
Is it really that surprising to see Cancellara win another World Championship on the 2nd most aerodynamic bike out there? No... but it's still cool.

And I know I have a fancy showy bike, and I like that one too. But then again... it's a sleeper in it's own right.

Fitchburg looms...

The Others...

2009-06-18T17:22:00.002-05:00

First there was the Cannibal,
The Lion of Flanders
Mellow Johnny
Cipo
Little Baby Elephant AKA The Pirate
The Killer

And now...

The Zebra of Burlington.

You're been warned.

Hello world

2009-06-15T09:33:00.003-05:00

So, my eye is healing just fine. No need to worry. So what was going on you may wonder... well. Turns out, the human eye ball was never really intended for contacts, this should come as no surprise. Oxygen, getting to the eye is very important it turns out. And when not enough oxygen gets to the eye, the contact can become a little incubater on your eye. Awesome.
So, at some point I had a small scratch on my eye. This is common, and usually doesn't cause any issues.
However, if you maybe have dirty contacts, or maybe wear them past their date, or maybe we them for too long, then! Oh yes, then! there can be some major eye trouble. I didn't actually do any of the above mentioned things, but some how I ended up with the same result.
Anyway, the contact acted as a warm little home for some bacteria that that cozied up inside that small scratch on the lense and blammo! I had my contacts all day and didn't feel anything, everything felt great. As soon as I took the contact out, it was awful. And I mean awful. It felt like there was bleach in my eye.
i figured, well, I must have gotten something in there.
I slept it off.
Or well, I tried to sleep it off. I woke up a bunch of times. It sucked.
I went to the ER. They told me all about the bacteria in my eye and how it had formed a tiny .5mmx.5mm hole in the lense. Which honestly, doesn't really sound THAT small to me. I have allen wrenches that size. Some eye drops and a week or so later and I'm back in business.

Why this has put a big damper on my training.
Not being able to wear sunglasses is a bummer, but I'm not that shallow. And I skipped the weekly mountain bike race because I didn't want dirt to get into an already sensitive eye, but the real problem was my eye became oddly light sensitive. Somehow the eye ball gets so caught up on fighting off the bacteria that it forgets to shut out the light so it was hard for me to keep my left open. As you can imagine, riding your bike like this, while doable, is not ideal. And it was pretty painful.
So, after finishing up my round of antibiotics today I will be back in action tomorrow on the Tuesday night World Championships so that I may slightly prepare myself for the Fitchburg so I can finish in annynomity.
Rad.

And for those that feared for the Circle A in what is always a hellfire of a crit, I have procured some older Rival bits to put onto the Zebra bike that I used as a TT bike last year. I am a big fan of this older S-Works bike. You can see the same frame moving quickly while piloted by Scott. However, he has the more appealing and less obnoxious red paint job.

And that's the word.
Oh! And my mom and Jerry came to visit this weekend and had a blast. So that was awesome.

It is raining today and I don't like it.
Aa

Corneal Ulser?!?

2009-06-09T17:28:00.002-05:00

WTF?

There is a hole in my eyeball.
It is being treated and healing.

I am sensitive to sunlight and it is putting a damper on my training.

More news on that, later.

The fire!

2009-06-05T21:16:00.002-05:00

The fire is back!!

I had toyed with the idea of heading down to balloon fest tomorrow until I remembered that I just towed my Jetta to the mechanic because it refuses to start. I know... I gave up. But really, it has been a LONG time and I have exhausted all of my ideas and all of my friends ideas, some more than once. So, I figured it was finally time.

You know that ride of the season where in theory everything sounds great and it should all go according to plan? Well, that was Wednesday for me. Still not 100% recovered from whatever illness has been kicking my ass as of late, I thought it would be a good idea to ride out to Catamount, compete in the 4 lap mtb race, then ride home.
The ride out there was HILLY, the folks that gave me the great directions failed to mention these details to me. Oh well. And it's about 12-13 miles, I think on the road on the kick ass GT Marathon.
Sweet.
I get there in a little under and hour.
Get signed up.
Drink some water, wait around, and boom! We're off. There are some fast folks at this race and there are some want to be fast folks and there are some used to be fast folks and everything in between. It's fun. I start off towards the back thinking I'll be conservative. As some of you well know, this technique lasts me about 3 minutes, but for whatever reason, I constantly try and employ the tactic. Oh well.
I start going wicked hard after afew minutes, passing people and loving it. Sliding in corners, realizing I have the suspension set up WAY to hard. I panicked before the start and added some PSIs to the shocks, I don't really know why.
Anyway... after 1.78 laps of wicked hard riding, I remember, "Hey, you have to ride home..." Oops.
I back it down, then realize I just way over stressed myself after still being sick and gracefully took and early exit from the race after 2 laps.
I hung out with Whit (one of the Service Managers at the shop) while he did some neutral support for the event and then hooked up the lights and headed home.
The ride home is a little shorter at about 10 miles, but it's still a trek.
But the fire, I am now stoking the fire and making grand plans for things to come...
So the season... has arrived. With the return of regretta the Jetta, things will be cooking in no time. And there is a slight chance I may have scored a sweet roof box for free. And I mean SWEET. Huge. I think I could my whole bike in there without taking anything apart. Awesome.

Side note.
Still looking for 40 or 42 cm shallow drop road bars.
And a Fizik Antares saddle.

I have... an XBOX 360 for sales, 2 guitars, games, lots of goodies. E-mail me.

That's it.
Back to planning the rest of the season and shredding, hard!

The Wild World of Sports

2009-05-28T09:59:00.001-05:00

Here are some things we can take away from this weekends marathon and half marathon exploits.

Scott Sullivan and myself are faster than your average bear, and human for that matter. It was awesome.
Bloody nipples will NEVER be cool.
People poo themselves while running, seriously.
8000 people is a dam lot of people.
13.1 miles is a dam long way.
And it was super fun.

So, last week I was stuck down with some sort of illness that still remains undefined. I don't know what was going on but I had the worst soar throat ever, a minor fever, and I felt like I had just taken a ride inside a drier. Rad.
I laid on the couch a lot and called out of work on Thursday to do some more couch laying.
Then I drove south, picked up Ali in Boston where she had just slain the Child Life Specialist exam (results forthcoming) and further south we went to RI.
Friday saw some low key action, a serious 2 hours nap, and some awesome time with Scott and Abby and late arriver Hoshiah at the old Fez. Scott later informed that the Providence select have forfeited the Fez to college D-Bags in favor of higher ground on the West Side. This came as sad news to me. I think it was the hamburgers fault.
Anyway...
Saturday, I awoke in awful pain and we headed to the Urgent Care. they had no answers for me but gladly took a bunch of money. Lame. I got a perscription for some medicine and off we went to the wedding. My cousin Kim was getting married.
It was fun.
We ate dinner.
Then departed for the great green state once again, racing Scott Sullivan there the entire time. We made it to VT in under 4 hours. What?! Yeah, cruise control and all that.
Met Scott at the house and finally crashed out at 1:00 or so.

Early morning! We were up at 6:00 and walking towards downtown to go pick-up our race numbers and info. The great bagel hunt 2009 took place as just about everywhere was closed for Memorial Day and we were HUNGRY. We found some bagels and an americano at Brueggers and felt saved and satisfied. Scott and I hung around the finish not really sure how to prepare for such an event and my nervous motor mouth never stopped talking.
Scott was running the first leg of the race and he headed over to the GIANT mob of people waiting on Battery street. From later reports, we would come to find out that Scott didn't start moving for over a minute after the race had officially started. Not his fault, just no where to go. CRAZY.
Marathons are kind of like, all the fun of bike racing, and a great sense of community if none of the assholes where invited. There is very little ego, no equipment scoffing, no major crashes that threaten lives. In short, it was a lot of fun.

Scott had the honor of running the first leg, in THE RAIN. All together now, LAME. He would later tell everyone that he didn't mind it. And I believe him, because come to find out, he doesn't wear socks when he runs. This is strange to me. But I'm not his feet, so there is no need to worry.

In the end, Scott ran a PR (personal record) of 1:46:32 and I ran a PR (by default, because this was my first 1/2) of 1:42:32. We were 44th out of 110. Rad!

When that was over, we headed to a BBQ hosted by Will S. that I work with. Good food, good beer, and friendly faces all around. The saga didn't really begin until much later in the evening. But, more on that later. Keep your eye on Scott's blog.

And bike racing.
I like Scott's idea that I am hiding out in VT until you forget that I am fast. We'll see. Don't hold your breath too long. I have some things in the pipeline and have been getting some training advice from a friendly face in the New England racing scene.
It's thursday and my legs finally feel 80% back to normal. I think by the weekend I'll be 100%. Though, it's scheduled to rain for the next 6 months, so we'll see if I don't trade in this GT for a canoe.

Also, GT has a twitter page! You can check it out here: http://twitter.com/GTDirtCoalition

Over and out, out and about.

Aa

Hello cool cruel world

2009-05-19T19:24:00.002-05:00

Hey hey!
First, I apologize for the lack of posts lately. There hasn't been too much to report on. Ali and I will be heading down to RI this weekend, albeit briefly to attend my cousins wedding on Saturday.
And then!
Dooms day.
Marathon day is Sunday. Scott will be my accomplice in this mission to run 13.1 miles. It has been occupying a bit of my brain lately to say the least. I ran 7 on Sunday night, so we at least know I can do half of the half marathon at 7 minute pace. Hot!

In exciting news, Ali will be taking a big big test on Thursday. Wish her luck! More to follow.

And now...
The pain of knowing. I went to meet for the local Tuesday night shoot-out match and found no one. Come to find out there is a training crit somewhere. Go figure. In Vermont, where there is only 1 crit all year long anyway. That being said, it is a pretty gnarly crit and some practice sure wouldn't hurt anyone. So, I guess it makes sense.
But really, knowing. There is something awful about knowing. I am at that stage of training in the season where I know where I should be and I know what I'm capable of and I also know where I"m at. And where I'm at is FAR from those other two places.
After going to the Tuesday night meeting ground, and finding no one, I headed out for a ride. I passed a bunch of people going this way and that. And it dawned on me. The feeling of NOT KNOWING is long since missing in cycling. Which is interesting and I can't really decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing. What I mean is, instead of just experiencing the ride, and feeling my quads burn going up Irish Hill, I KNOW that this should happen 3/4 of the way up. Or whatever. But if I didn't know... I would just think the hill hurt.

I am stumbling on my words right now.
On a side note. Last week I came across some old posts from when I had a Live Journal. Seriously. I admitted it. I am a pro at interneting and that's the truth.

So, it has been awhile since I have entered the competitive arena of cycling, and I am beginning to miss road racing, though it's really a foggy memory at this point. I am looking forward the GMSR, per usual. What I don't miss are freezing cold training rides trying to pack the miles on and fixing flats on wet, salt covered frozen wheels. And early spring races with shitty rain and wind. And crashing. I don't miss crashing at all. I fall down on the BMX bike enough to know that I'm still living and tough enough to continue. But I DO NOT miss licking road rash wounds for weeks after skidding down the road.

I don't know when I will poke my head out my racing hibernation hole, but I garuntee that when I do, it will me worth waiting for. So whether it's Balloon Fest or Batten Kill 2010, I'm bringing the A game.

Also, check out peakingracing.com. It's a VT company and they do some pretty wild events. And I use that word loosely.
Like I said, not too much to report. My small Sony DSC-T1 camera is getting repaired and should be ready in a week or two. That will mean more photos more often.
And, if I get in touch with Kipp there may be some more action footage than ever.

Would anyone like to buy my iBook? I would like to get a desktop.

Also, in the market for:
SRAM short or medium cage mountain rear der. x7 or better.
Road rear der and shifters. 9spd 105 or better.
Some magic to get my Jetta running.
Front Disc wheel 26"
31.8mm mountain bars, flat or riser.
Shallow drop road bars, 40cm, 31.8mm clamp. black.

I think that's it.

See ya'll soon.

Aa

From Elite to the street...

2009-04-21T20:46:00.004-05:00

I wanted to write, from Elite to Defeat, but that's not really true. First, let me show you a photo.
Step one: Build bike in garage like space in old strange building.

Step two: Ride bike where ever the wind may blow.

I felt it was important to show that even though I didn't go to Battenkill and spent over 100.00, I did in fact ride some dirt roads this past weekend, in the sunshine no less. So, next time you get a hankering for some serious rough roadage, spend the 100.00 in gas to get here, I'll make you dinner and we'll ride some serious dirt. Without all those yahoos getting flats and crashing all around you. It rules.

On cycling in general for a second. Tyler Hamilton. Are you kidding me? "I have a disappearing twin." "This is for Tugboat." "I suffer from depression." "I am not a cheater." That last may be inaccurate, but it fits the bill. Is this guy for real? I used to think Tyler was amazing. He was a New England hero, now I feel bad that he is lieing to himself so much. It's terrible.
What makes him think he is the only pro-cyclist that suffers from depression. This has got the be the most mentally damaging professional sport on the planet. Some days you are the best in the world and some days you can't even hold a wheel. It's taxing, to be kind. F that guy. And tell him to send the USA Pro jersey to the rightful owner.

Side note, The Italian Job is on. It's still a good movie.

Today...
Oh today.
Back to the idea that bike racing is a huge mental game.
I went on my first group ride of the year. Groups rides a terrible and wonderful thing all at the same time, though usually not on the same day. Today was one of the terrible days. My road mileage up this point in the year has been lean. As in skinny. As in, malnourished. You know what I'm getting at.
So out I go to "Tuesday Night Worlds" as its affectionately known. The weekly throw down where legs are tested and egos broken. It's between 2-2.5 hours. Off I go... riding at the front, getting the wind, rolling along. There's a 15 minute or so roll-out period where a temporary truce is called.
Across route 7 and things hot up in a hurry. Scurry. Furry bunny, money. Boom!

I fade to the back at this point, planning on watching the action. But let's be honest... How many times have you heard me say something along the lines of "I think I'm just going to sit in today..." Then 5 minutes into the race I'm off the front and charging... I can't help it. Some might say I race wrecklessly. I like to think of it as passionately. Sitting in and finishing in the field just doesn't do it for me. Never has.
So, I tailgun for about 4 minutes, then I'm sliding towards the front, and it's my turn to pull through. Race instinct kicks in as we approach the first town line sprint. "I'm not pulling." So i pull off with the guy in front of me. Turns out this is not welcome in the ride, so I attack up the yellow line.
Nothing tops a true "SahnGermain" attack through the feed zone, but the yellow line attack is a close second. Especially when everyone is looking right.
To my chagrin, I gap them. I'm in the 50x11 stomping on it. And there's a gap. I think I might make it. This sensation fades quickly as the roaring boil of blood in my quads takes over. I'm overtaken with 200 meters to go.
The rest of the ride shapes up like this. I sit in, then attack with abandon at random spots. I am able to latch on each time.

The return part of the ride, back towards town, is hilly. We hit the first climb and I am dropped like a rusty muffler.
Dam.
At the top of the climb I pick my tongue up off the group, blink the bloody tears from my eyes, and head for home. Implosion. Explosion. Corrosion. It was rough.

I limp back to town, boil some pasta, shower and land on the couch. It sure was good.

The first hard is always the hardest, most painful, most embarrassing, and after that, it only gets better. Sweet. I think the "How many days can you ride challenge 2009" Will begin May 3rd. So... brace yourself. Come hell or high water, it's ride time.

Oh, the Circle A is pure elegance in motion. Art in motion. Notion. Magic potion. There were 10 guys on the ride. 1 had seen the bike before. 5 others asked me what it was and where it came from. That's 60% interest rate. Imagine if credit cards were that high. Oof.

See you on the trails soon.

Things to come to VT for this summer.
200 on 100.
90 mile Epic singletrack ride.
10% alcohol beers on tap (WHAT?!)
Ali and myself.

Burn the Crown Down

2009-04-08T17:02:00.002-05:00

Yeah!
Ok, so here is where it went wrong. New bike, new tires, new everything. New kit. Side note, the Sugoi clothing is top notch. The only thing I would ever ask for is a full length zipper.
That aside, everything else with the clothes is GREAT.
So, I slept pretty terribly the night before, restless, etc. I had drank a few (how many really...) beers with Scotty the night before and I was feeling a touch queazy. I really don't remember the last time I felt that sick after some beers. It was a challenge to get my awesome Dunkin Donuts sandwich down.
Speaking of... it was a HUGE disappointment when I ordered a bacon, egg and cheese on a cinnamon raison bagel and they gave me one on an english muffin. Seriously!? Bummer.

Anyway, I was running late.
I met Harold and Kathy, two other folks that are parts of the GT Dirt Coalition. I also met Harold's son Zack, who, come to find out I have ridden with at Highland. Zack is riding with the former Kenda Raleigh guys on the new Spooky team. I'm not sure if he is going to be on the road, or what the story is. But that's that.
Anyway... As I previously stated, Tim Haitz (King 2008) and Brian Pierce (King 2007) were not present. Now, since starting order is based on lasts years time, that meant I was up first.
I wasn't too psyched about this, but you know, it is what it is.
I had pre-rode the first few minutes of the course because in my memory they were the most technical. Also, Bo filled me in that the "good" line was high and right. Bo is a great mountain biker, so I generally listen to what he has to say. It turned out to be true as well, go figure.

So I start. Boom, I feel good, I feel flowy. This is ride number 2 on the GT steed. I think my odds are good today, but we'll see how it goes.
The GT has Mavic rims that are tubeless compatible but I haven't converted them yet... turned out to be a BIG mistake. The course seemed more boney than memory served and there were A LOT of sharp objections. Really, A LOT. Anyway, off I go, bounding through the woods, thoughtless and light. Apparently Scott got enough hang over for the two of us.
And then after about 3 minutes. Maybe 4, HSSSSSS. What?!
Seriously!!? I was bummed. And I instantly remember that I had wanted to add a little bit of gas to the rear tire, but in my haste, I forgot. Dammit.
I didn't have a tube, I didn't have a pump, and I was the first guy on the course. This meant two things.
First, it meant that I had to suffer the humiliation of getting passed by EVERYONE in my field.
Second, it meant that I had 25 chances to get a tube/pump from someone else.
Turns out... no one else had a tube either. Oh well. After a mile or two of riding on the flat. I figured it was a full suspension bike and it had Mavic wheels, I didn't need any air. It actually rode pretty well. Who knew?

I finally find Jack Madden of Legend Bike Shop fame. He was a course marshal with this other guy Mike. Jack hooks he up, and I'm back in action.
I had been passed by all 25 guys in the Expert field and I was now at the tail end. I managed to catch two guys. Woo!

Anyway, long story short.
I managed to finished LAST in the expert Senior 1 race. In a mind bending 45 minutes. Seriously??? That's 15 MINUTES slower than last year. Crazy.
I was 100th overall. That's a pretty solid spot to land, so I'll take it.
And since I just finished the last beer in the house... this post is finished as well.

Oh! I forgot to mention, the other trails in Burlingame are AWESOME. Brendan Dee gave me a mini tour afterwards and it felt GREAT to be out in the woods riding some seriously tech New England trails. I love mountain biking.
Thanks Dee.
See you guys in RI soon.

Chasing the Crown

2009-04-06T13:30:00.005-05:00

As it turns out, I have a long storied history with this little race. A history that I didn't remember until I was driving down to the event on Saturday evening in one of the worst designed autos I have ever had the displeasure of piloting.
Here is a photo taken by Harold of the GT Dirt Coalition.

When I first did the race it was called the King's Cyclery Time Trial. Let's be honest, King of Burlingame is a much better name.
At that point, I was riding for a small team sponsored by a small bike shop (B&B Cycle and Sport) and an even smaller pizza place (Felini's Pizzaria). It may have helped that I was cutting my teeth as a mechanic in the back room of B&B. To date, I have only been to Fellini's once, maybe twice, but I'm leaning towards once.

In my first race down there, my handlebars loosened up within the first mile, and I headed back to the parking lot, fixed it, then headed back out on the course. I can't find the EFTA archives to find the results, but I was a junior is all I remember. And I'm fairly certain I didn't finish too high.
2 years ago, I rode my road bike the 40+ miles down to the race, grabbed my mountain bike out of Ned's car and headed to the start. That year I finished second to Brian Pierce by 31 seconds. Not too shabby. That was the only off-road event I did that year.
Last year, 2008, I rode the 40 miles down to the race again. Tim Haitz scorched the course in less than ideal conditions for a sub 30 minute time and I was 3rd by 1:20. Brian Pierce finished 2nd this time only 13 seconds in front of me.
So you would think, that in 2009, with both Brian and Tim absent, I was looking good. In 2007 the 3rd place guy was 40 seconds slower than myself. Last year, 4th place was 22 seconds slower. So I figured it would be alright...

Where did it all go wrong?
...
To be continued...

April 17th... Go long...

2009-04-03T12:14:00.000-05:00

April 17th is the Official Unofficial North South Trail ride.
What is the trail? It's a trail that runs the length of the Ocean State. Approximately 10 hours.

Oh, did I mention it's off-road (mostly).

Who's coming with me?

Group ride, so there will others to pick you up off the pavement when you lay down with exhaustion.
Mike Sam had some interest... but was he serious...

Do it!

First Blood, again...

2009-03-30T20:09:00.005-05:00

So, it rained a bit and it was a busy weekend, so there hasn't been another MTB ride... Wednesday hopefully.
Ben'Jammin and myself are going to try and get one some trails. Lets hope it won't be too muddy or anything out there. Ali and I had a great day off yesterday. We visited the lake, which has thawed and is getting ready for swimming. See here.

Then she found a stick, and tried to skewer me!

Then!
Burlington disappeared!!

Don't worry, it came back later. I think maybe it just needed a break. So that's always good.
I made a deal to run the 1/2 marathon at the end of May. I made a deal with Ali yesterday that I would run for the next 30 days straight. 1 days down, 29 to go. I read an article awhile back about riding 30 days in a row and how good it was etc. So, that spurred the idea. Later this year I will announce the "As Many Days In A Row-A-Thon" It will be a challenge to everyone about how many days in a row you can ride. Regardless of weather, etc.

The big news, I don't think I have much to say about, but here's a photo. Seen on your block sometime this summer. Maybe.

First Blood

2009-03-26T21:35:00.002-05:00

Let me make a short list of things I will no longer take for granted in the bike world:
Well marked trails.
No ice on trails.
"Stick-E" tires.
Dirt.
Temps above 45 F.
Brand new bibs.

I'm not sure what else, but there were more thoughts on the ride and before this Arrogant Bastard.
Anyway... I made the maiden Voyage on ye olde GT.
Let me start by saying, rad. Also, let me point out that I was right in saying I needed to cut down the handlebars.
Some finer points to mention, I don't have the suspension 100% dialed in. It was close, but the rear was a touch on the soft side today. I headed to Mud Pond. A really fun place to ride pretty close to Burrrrrlington.
So the temps were pretty favorable today, and after some errands, and an out of business machine shop (bummer!) I headed over there.
I was flying solo, knee warmers and wind proof base layer, I was styling.
That first ride, when the tires touch the dirt, when you dive behind that first tree... there is something special there. There is nothing else like it. The first ride outside on the road bike is good. The first trip to the outdoor park on the bmx is good. But nothing compares to that trip into the woods. Everything melts... it is perfect.
The result of such a feeling, is that upon exiting the woods, everything IS perfect. I am pumped on life.

To the detail of the bike, for those that might be wondering. RAD.
It BEGS to be ridden fast, and ridden all day. It's 5" in the front and 4" out back and it feels bottomless. Let me curb that by saying that todays conditions were not, um, ideal. To put it lightly. The ground was firm, and trail damage wasn't happening, however, there was A LOT of ice. There are two things that I have never owned for a mtn bike. Tubeless tires and studded tires. Studs would have been a joy today. I mean, I love tripodding through the woods as much as the next guy, but it's a bit more fun when you actually get to pedal.
And really, since this was my first woods ride in an uncountable amount of days, I never went down. Granted, I might have been riding a like a sally, but it was the first ride and it's tough to rally.

Oddly, there hasn't been snow in town for weeks at this point and there was still oodles of ice to be found in the woods. Conveniently the ice is ONLY on the single track, so if you go looking for it, you'll know just where to find it. It was pretty amazing. Also, there were times when I thought I was riding on dirt, turned out to be frozen crust with a 4 inch gap between it and the hard group. There were multiple close calls, but again, never a crash. ::knocks on wood::

To the point about the bike. While I have only ever OWNED two squish bikes in the last 9 years. I have ridden too many to recall. In my opinion 26 pounds is on the heavy end of the spectrum. However, it doesn't feel like 26n pounds. And I was ble to clear EVERY climb today. In the middle ring. Compared to some Specialized bikes and some Cannondales that I demoed last year, that was NOT the case. Also, I never had to resort to the granny ring. which really is a blow to the ego. Again, not true of the bike last year.
So, consider that at this point the trail is covered in ice and I am unfit. Interesting results.

So I will go out on a limb and say the bike is awesome. I am really exciting to get some more time in the saddle. Also awesomely surprising was the saddle. A Fizik Gombi. It was GREAT, And I am a stickler when it comes to saddles. Anyway, with some luck I'll be able to get some more saddle time before KOB. Also, come June, I'll write up a full review of the bike.

See you soon.
Nightster, what?

Hot wheels

2009-03-23T17:47:00.005-05:00

Thank you GT.

So this came in the mail Saturday. I wanted to take a photo of the box because it was MASSIVE. Seriously one of the tallest bike boxes I have ever seen. When I opened the box it looked like my box was lost in there. Peering out me.

Here it is peering out at you.
I am pumped to get on this bike and see what it can do. I need to trim the bars down a bit to better fit my bird like shoulders, but out of the box it feels great. Glad I went with the small instead of the medium. The mandatory blast around the neighborhood in 30 MPH winds and 20 degree temps showed that the bike is ready to rumble. Really felt great. I am going to try and get out on it Thursday morning.
As it is, pie plate and all, the bike weighs in at a respectable 26.2 pounds. It would be easy to shave weight in a few places, but it feels really svelte when on it.

Let's take a half second to talk about spec. A lot companies will upgrade the rear der because that's where you look when checking bikes out. But really, a bike with Deore shifters and an XTR rear der is going to shift like a Deore bike. Lets me honest. GT however, upgraded the SHIFTERS. actually making a noticeable difference in the ride of the bike. So it may be a full XT bike, but it shifts like an XTR bike, hot. Also, in my opinion, there is no better lever shape than Shimanos. I love the old XTR v-brake levers on my IBIS and this new Marathon has XT hydraulics that use the same lever shape. Happy fingers all around. There is no skimping any where on this bike, and I didn't get a special version, this is the same thing hitting floors all across the country.
Kenda Stick-E rubber tires, Mavic Cross Trail wheels with Center Lock. XT rotors. XT everything but shifters, and those are XTR. Remote lock-out! The new Fox remote lock-out is baller. Hit it with the thumb and bump it with the knuckle. Sweet.

In other news, it was a ton of fun to visit Providence the last weekend. Ali and I had a blast. We even walked from White Electric land to Thayer St. Then back downtown to dinner at Local 121. Awesome. Return trip soon for the King of Burlingame TT. Also the GT debut race of the year. We'll see how it goes. Well I should hope. I have been expirementing with the rear pressure already to make sure I have it dialed in. I think it's going to take some time for sure.

In other news, 3 cheers for Ax Men. I love this show. I also read in the paper that one of the crews got in trouble for illegally logging somewhere. Though, it hasn't come up yet in the show and I don't want to Google it in order to maintain the element of surprise.
There is not too much riding news. It has been 50 some days and 20 the next. But the smell of spring is strong in the air. With it comes fun.

When I have more to report... you'll hear about it. Thursday most likely.
I'll try and get bring the camera to get some photos of the woods.

Here is a photo of the view from our front porch. It was too cold to walk down to the water for a better photo.
See you soon.

Tough

2009-03-17T20:44:00.002-05:00

We like to think we're tough.
Sometimes, I like to think I am smart.
As in, I think I am smart in deciding to skip the Battenkill Roubaix. Although, that isn't even the name any more. Is now called the Tour of the Battenkill.
Anyway, the point of this story, is that I will not be attending. At least I will not be racing. There is a chance that I may be there working the Echappe tent.
After a pretty long deliberation over the choice, I have decided that it probably isn't financially responsible for me. Since the cost of the race has risen, and my fitness has been delayed, I don't see how it would be it would be wise. It is a slight disappointment, but hey, what are you going to do.

The Burlingame MTB TT remains the first race of the season. Somehow this always seems appropriate since it is in RI. The past couple of years I have been fortunate enough to send my mt bike down ahead of me in Ali or Ned's car and then ride my road bike down there, get there in time for the race, and blast through it. It was using the race more for training then.
This year, all bets are off and I will be there taking no prisoners. It still remains to be seen what bike I will be riding. I WILL have my rad new GT DIRT COALITION tent, but the bike is yet to arrive. So, that's that.
Might be on the IBIS, if I can secure just a couple more parts. Disc front wheel and SRAM rear der anyone? Actually, I think I have a rear der... maybe.

In birthday news, Ali cooked an amazing breakfast, then we had an amazing lazy day around Burlington, sold some T-shirts later in the day, and then busted out for RI. We made it there in 4 hours. One of our fastest trips to date! Rad.

Once in RI, we spent some splendid time in the spring like conditions. It always seems like we don't have enough time to really spend with our friends. But it is always nice to see everyone. Dinner with Mom and Jerry at Local 121. We really enjoy that place.

Anyway, training has started to come along. I have been beginning my prep for the 1/2 marathon. Shout out to Scott Sullivan for making it through his first 1/2 marathon EVER in New Bedford. Awesome. He ran 1:48:00, so that's my benchmark since I don't really know what to expect.

GT bike should be here soon, photos to follow. Circle should get out on it's first road ride this season this week. No pictures to follow.

See you soon, maybe.

New Things

2009-03-05T11:34:00.004-05:00

No, I didn't buy any new gear, as explained in the last post.
However, since I know some of you in the world at large enjoy things other than cycling, sometimes, here is something new for you.
And when I say new, I mean literally, new, like brand spanking just happened a second ago, just created, NEW.

Runners Connect! presented by Skirack

Visit this group

This is the new online group/message board for runners in and around Burlington, VT.
Do you have to live in the area to join. No! Some of the local events and such might be a little far for some to attend, but the good advice and ideas that pop-up will surely pertain to everyone.

Oh, and the cycling version of the group is just around the bend.

The motivation roller coaster

2009-03-04T09:13:00.004-05:00

It comes in spits and spats. Shits and shats, shirts and hurts.
You know some days you get on the bike and feel really rad? Like you are unstoppable, like you could ride at threshhold for the next 4 hours? You know the days I'm talking about... they come few and far between, but when they hit, you feel like a champ. Well, I haven't had that day yet this season.
However, inspiration and motivation can come from so many different places. Whether it's a fly new saddle, some hot wheels, your lady friend coming to the race, a new puppy, clean water bottles, temps above 15, doesn't matter.

So recommend you check this out.
It's a ride the length of Vermont. It's free. You can do it with me, or try to. I know I will be on the list of try. 212 miles, one day. North to South with some of the larger climbs coming in the 2nd 100 miles. So for all interested parties, lets make it happen. I think it will be fun as hell. Or at the very least, make for a dam good story.

This season I have foregone buying any new gear, save for my PB&J bmx bike, in favor of slowly collecting the pieces and such that I need. So far, it's been pretty rewarding, but more importantly, I actually notice the difference that each little piece is making. Whether its a new crankset, bearings, chain, tires (speaking of which, the tire on my rear wheel right now squeaks like a banshee on the trainer). I am pumped on riding bikes.

I love riding bikes. This morning I have been trying to pick-out a tentative calender for the year and things look HOT. Right now there is EVERY race on the calendar pencilled into my planner, but that's why it's pencilled. The new MTB bike should be here next month and ready to shred. Sadly this means I won't have it for the KOB. Which also means I'll be left hob cobbling something together again. Whether it's a demo bike, or I find a fork for my Ibis in the next few weeks. Anything is possible really. So people of blogosphere, I know I have asked before, but does anyone have an 80-100mm fork that I could buy/borrow/use and repair, whatever. I am open to options.

I made some small changes to my position on the bike recently and it has been SWEET. Granted, it's still in the trainer looking like a chained up rhino, but as soon as it's let loose, look out!

So let's here it, what has everyone pumped to ride this year? New GT? Rebuilt old fork? New to you parts? What is it? And if anyone wants to live in 1996 all over again, head over to MTB Dee's blog for some old school parts at an old school price.
I don't think I have anything to hock at the moment... yeah, nothing comes to mind.

Oh... and size 43 shoes, does anyone have those?

Coming to RI in a week and a half. Get your pinball hands ready because there is a storm a brewing!

Sweet mother!

2009-02-23T23:07:00.003-05:00

Alright everybody...
Here it is...
The breaking news.
1. I have come CLOSE to hitting a 360, but no actual success yet. I was on form tonight getting so close, then my chain broke. Too many feeble grinds maybe... So... until next time.
2. The mountains around here have gotten about 4 feet of snow in the last 4 days and it's not letting up. And that's for real. I hope it holds out for me on Thursday.
3. Training is coming along.
4. The half marathon is looming in the distance, and my real training PLAN comes into effect March 8th.
5. I am in the market for a motorcycle. More on that later.
6. I am going to fix the Jetta, sell it, and pick-up Shawn Mottram 2 Door Fox wagon... hopefully. Thoughts on this?
7. Lucky, lucky number 7. Thanks everybody who e-mailed GT.

I don't know if your e-mails helped, but I would really like to think they did. I received an e-mail from GT this evening confirming that I have been selected for the 2009 GT Dirt Coalition. How sweet it is. Details to follow. I need to finalize some paperwork tomorrow and get the ball rolling.
It's always nice to have some key thing to motivate you for the season. This year it's a new gig with GT. Last year it was a band of the raddest guys to race with. Next year it could be... who knows. Lets just leave it at me being pumped on riding right now. I need this snow out of here. The skatepark just isn't big enough.
So, I will make good on the beer/tune-up offer, now all you've got to do is find me.
Thanks again. Look for me at the King of Burlingame MTB TT in Burlingame TT. In April, more complete schedule to follow now that I have something to work with.

Awesome.
So pumped to ride.

2009

2009-02-10T21:51:00.005-05:00

And beyond...

Alright, how's that for a tease?
So, as of right now, I still do not have anything locked down. So, in the name of taking risks and going for it, I need your help.

How about, for the exchange of one crisp clean cold beer (of VT heritage) and a free tune-up (as my schedule permits, bicycles only need apply) you dear reader, you, help me out.
We'll think of this as the 2009 mountain bicycle racing elections. Though, as far as I know, I'm the only person you know who's running.

What do you need to do?
E-mail GT. Tell them that they should sign Adam St. Germain to their GT Dirt Coalition program for 2009.
That's it. Just a sentence or two, letting them know that I am a good 'n' honest, dyed in the wool bike junkie, who cares about keeping trails open, getting MORE people on bikes, MORE often. And laughing all the while. Eh, eh?

While I do have the address for the head of marketing, I think it would be 1) unfair to pass that around the world of webs and 2) most likely damaging to my end goal here.

Here are some cool things happening in the world of GT:
1) They have successfully brought to market the first* carbon fiber downhill race bike. It looks unreal. The Fury. It's a complete monocoque front triangle, it's over 8" of travel, and it's hotter than a pig in heat. Plus! They were smart enough to jump on board with Rockshox, and used the Maxle for the through bolt rear axle. Brilliant!
2) Though there hasn't been too much news about it recently, deep in some cubicle somewhere, they are continuing work on the GT IT-1. The IT-1 is one of the cleanest and simplest approaches to date that incorporates the internal gear box. No more broken derailleurs!
3) Long live the Zaskar! We all know that if you were riding in the mid 90's you either had one or wanted one and now it's back. Carbon or aluminum, you decide.
4) Mohawk hubs, a small staple in the world of BMX have made a tiny return on the GT Gutterball. The Gutterball is a SS/fixie townie machine. A touch of class in a genre of bike that is over populated with more of the same.
5) They're really pushing then envelope in terms of technology, just like they used too, only NOW they have some DEEP pockets, which will hopefully lead to some pretty amazing things.
6) They're owned by the same corporation that owns Cannondale. I have a soft spot for the folks in CT/PA. Really, who else is making aluminum frames in the US any more? Did you hear that Specialized? Did you hear that Trek? Klein? Gary? Any body...? Lets hope some of the GT production moves to PA... hey, I can dream right?
7) They're teaming up with IMBA to keep your trails open, keep you educated, and keep you having fun. Not too many other companies are pumping money back into the sport as a lifestyle. Shout out to Trek actually, for doing some pretty brave things as well. Thanks guys.
8) More importantly still! GT is giving 35 guys around the way the chance to live a tiny portion of the dream. They're trying to get back to the grassroots of the sport where riders are made and never paid. That's where your help comes in.

So, E-mail GT, tell them you like me, tell them I like bikes. First 20 submitters will get a 22oz or larger beer! After the first 20 submitters beer will be shrunk to your standard 12oz. One lucky person will get a growler of suds.

askus@gtbicycles.com

I know that e-mail isn't for marketing, but hey, at least it's in the company. Make a note that it should go to marketing.

Put your subject as ADAM ST. GERMAIN FOR DIRT COALITION 2009! Or something similar.

How do you cash in your free beer and tune-up? (Come-on that's a $54.50 value! For a brief e-mail!)
Easy...
1) Grab my e-mail from my Blogger profile.
2) CC me on the e-mail you send to GT.
3) At the bottom of your e-mail to GT, include your name and address.
4) I will send you a 100% genuine coupon for a free tune-up and a beer ticket. The tickets/coupons will be numbered and have your name and my signature on them, so no fakes allowed!
5) Find me in the next 5 years and you can cash them in. That's right, 5 year statuette of limitations on this offer.
6) If you guys send in enough votes, I'll be easy to find me under my shiney GT tent and abroad my GT bike at a MTB event near you.
7) Please do not harass GT. They're busy folks. One e-mail per person please.
8) Do it soon! They're making their votes right now! Let say the deadline for your submission is 3/14. (Also my birthday.)

The fine print:
I have a decade of experience as a mechanic, so you're all set on that. This is for a regular tune-up, or equal value of work to your bike. Keep in mind that SOME repairs cannot be done in the field and this will be at my discretion. That said, I will do multiple small jobs that may equal the cost of the tune-up. A $50.00 value. Please e-mail for price quote on other work. Keep in mind that I do currently live in Burlington, VT. But between the months of March and November can be found anywhere between Ohio and Canada. Literally.
Limit of 6 beer tickets per person. Redemption of more than 1 beer ticket requires 24 hour notice. 48 hour notice if it's RI and it's a Saturday. Beer is my choice, no complainers. But it is guaranteed to be of VT heritage. First 20 INDIVIDUAL submitters get a 22oz or larger brew. Limit one jumbo brew per household unless you're particularly convincing. The growler will go to the best e-mail, in my and Ali's opinion. Lastly, as much as I would like to guarantee you will get a VT beer within the next 5 years, things change. I reserve the right change the home state of the beer 1 year from date of publication 2/10/2009.

Seriously, I love riding bikes, help me out!

Launch pad

2009-02-09T15:28:00.002-05:00

I'm at the jump off point.
I'm ready.
Pearl Amfib tights
Woolie Bullys
Under armor LS
Descente winter freeze jacket
Masque face mask
Cannondale hat
Pearl Amfib gloves and I'm off, running to work.

What a wicked 1.1 miles. Serious business. Only 12 miles to go before I'm at the half marathon distance I'm committed to run come the end of May. Holy hell.

Circle A is in the trainer. Snow is melting. Cabin fever is escalating.
The store is good, yesterday was busy on the bike floor, took me a little while to remember how to speak.

Not too much to report really. No team news. No news is good news maybe? No Fuhgetta news.
Anyone have a fixie I can buy for cheap? Part of a plan really...
Ali is kicking ass at the hospital.

Come visit!

Don't you want to work here?

2009-02-06T13:43:00.005-05:00

No no, seriously.
Here are the major benefits:
1) We're hiring.
2) You can go swimming on your lunch break. Awesome
3) You'd get to hang out with Ali and I at your leisure.
4) You get to live in Burlington, VT. Where it's rad 365 days a year. Sometimes 366.

Knowledge needed for employment, awesomeness, willingness, etc. Triathletes encouraged. As well as strong bicycle sales folks.
Full scale run/ski/snowboard/bike center.
We do what you do!

E-mail me, or the store, or just stop by.

And!! To top it off...
If you need a 1 bedroom apartment, I have just the place! Directly downstairs from us (Ali and I). You can see the lake from your window! And there's a mini beach just 100 yards away, it actually may be closer than that.

Or, you can come visit, and I'll give you shelter and a snack or two. Possibly a cold beverage, or hot, depending on the mood of the day.

As always... have fun.
See you on the roads/trails soon.

The dog whisperer

2009-02-05T07:54:00.002-05:00

Say hello to my little friend...

Ok, so it's not our dog. It's one of Ali's dogs that live in Shelburne with her parents. Her name is Lili, she is friendly.

That's it. Headed to Smuggs for another day of riding... though it looks COLD out.

Hey!

2009-01-27T23:55:00.002-05:00

So, let me tell you a little story. (you'll need time, and focus to finish reading this... apologies ahead of time) It involves a theory, and really it's some important stuff so if you think you know, then get on it!
First, I have not been able to sleep in WEEKS. Seriously. Ali will attest. It's pretty terrible. And it's the opposite of being overtrained. I am FAR FAR from being over trained at this point. I am HUGELY undertrained. Can this lead to sleeplessness?
I was just lying down for over an hour, and alas, I am here. Very much awake.
I took some Sleep Aid a couple of nights, with luck, then the other night, I took the same sleep aid, and hoots-pa! Nothing but awakeness. No, I am not stressed, just very much awake. The hell!

In more exciting news...
World Tour 2009 went off... with quite a few hitches actually. Some pretty hefty ones indeed.
The weeks leading up to World Tour 2009 saw me blow the head gasket in Fuhgetta. Bummer. Then, the very week before, down to the wire saw triumph! Replacement of the head gasket in seriously arctic temperatures. I'm talking 8 degrees. 8! I was COLD. The car was cold. My tools were literally frozen. Anyway, you already read about that. I drove the car, it was starting funny, but otherwise, running like a champ. No overheating, no leaks. Kicking huge amounts of ass.

Colby and I depart Burlington, behind schedule (did you expect anything less?) and head south. We were planning on going to:
Talent Skatepark. South Burlington, VT (skipped this one due to late departure)
Ski Market/Underground Snowboard. Boston, MA.
Skater's Edge. Taunton, MA.
Rye Airfield. Rye, NH.
Home.
So, after a super relaxing morning, hanging out with Ali, we get out of dodge. And for 100 miles Fuhgetta, is cruising. Everything is great. Then...

Boom! There is a small mushroom cloud of toxic white smoke spewing from the exhaust of my car. The dash lights up. Alarms are going off. Who knew a 92 Jetta even had alarms. The thing all but exploded. Dam.
Pull over.
State trooper arrives. Promptly too. Congrats NH. He takes my info. I think at this point, in denial, that I have just over heated. He tells me the next service is only 3 miles down the highway. Ok.
It takes me 10 minutes to get the car started again. It's difficult when the cylinders are full of coolant you know.
We roll... take the exit. Stop. Car dies again. Oh boy. Get it started... use the TOM TOM my mom got me for Christmas, life saver on this trip. And head for the highway.
In our infinite wisdom, we decide we will leave the car off an exit and take a rental car for the remainder of the trip because we really want to ride.
It's 15 degrees during all of this. I tell Colby it's ok, I have an emergency blanket.
We stop at a gas station, a phone call goes into the VW master Mr. Sam and advice is taken. Maybe not adhered to, but taken. We start the car again... check out that white cloud...
Back down the road, back ON THE HIGHWAY. Other drivers can tell there is something wrong and they are beeping, waving, yelling... I wave and say thank you. We take the West Lebanon, NH exit, get stuck in traffic and PUSH the car into the nearest parking lot. With some brute force and determination, we push the car behind The 99 and hatch a plan. There's an airport... we'll go get a rental there.
Come to find out there is a HUGE hill leading up to the air port. Think Log Rd for you Rhode Islanders. Think the lower part of Bolton for the VT folks. Think, on a BMX bike. Think 10 degrees now... and think night time. Awesome.
Can't find the airport. Don't ask.
Tom Tom points towards an address that doesn't exist and we decide to go for the hotel we see across the street. An extremely take charge type of lady in her 50's, takes charge of the situation. She makes half a dozen phone calls on our behalf looking for rental cars. Everywhere is out. Rat-a-tat-tat.
That's when we meet "Mike."
Why the quotations... well... some bizarre guy with a suspicious English accent comes up from behind us and inquires, "You're trying to get to Boston? Me too..."
Great, Mike, thanks for telling us.
One last phone call to the Muffler House. Flashes of the Waffle House dance in my head, smothered and covered...
And blammo! They're a Rent-A-Wreck. They have a car. And they're "Leave the light on for us." Here we go.
A deal is struck with "Mike." He'll drive us to the RAW in his nearly dead, no heat having, barely stopping, clapped out SAAB or whatever it was, if we drive him to Boston, and he'll split the cost. Done.
We stash the bikes in the back "office" (it looked like a fight had taken place with the hotel supplies). And jump in the car.
Away we go, Tom Tom guiding us.
We reach the place, it's a sweet Ford Taurus, with toasty heat and cruise control.

Warning... you are only half way through this story... but it gets better.

Back to the hotel, grab the bikes, stuff them in the trunk, stuff "Mike's" luggage in there... and off to the West Leb. airport where Mike is going to leave his car. For 3 months!
Away we go.
On the way come to find Mike has been all over the world, moved here from the UK years ago, his parents live in both Canada AND the UK, thought somehow simutaneously. He flies for Cape Air. He worked for AirBus for the 1 week or so they were in business. And he is on his way down the carribean tofly small planes between islands. Or smuggle cocaine... you be the judge.
He promptly passes out in the back seat. We stop at Burger King soon. I had some KILLER coupons. Buy one get one free Whopper, Double Whopper, etc etc.
Mike wakes up, confused as to where we are.
He eats, then passes out again.
All the way to Logan Airport. We drop him at the Jet Blue terminal, apparently they are a sister airline with Cape. Or as Mike says, it's an industry perk, you can hop on any flight you like, any time, to any where. Hmmm....
He looks through his wallet, I'm convinced we're about to get stiffed, and then he promptly produces a $50.00 bill. Hot dam!
Couldn't have been better.
We part ways and head to Boston's tiniest apartment to stay with Colby's friend Jeremy.
Jeremy's shower has been broken for a month and the hot water has been running the entire time, making the apartment steamy, therefore necessitating open the windows, to let the steam out, but it's still 15 degrees there. Wait...
To a bar down the street with exactly 6 people in it, we're half.
Play a little Rock Band. At the bar.
Wii Bowling. Colby beats me... what!
And then the most disgusting thing I have seen in a long time happened. Colby and Jeremy BOTH get the gross super gross double gross hotdogs from 7-11. Aggh! I settle for a Toll House Cookie Chip-Wich Ice Cream sandwich and some water.
Hey, everyone has their vice.
To the tiny apartment!
BMX videos are watched... pumped to ride! Then National Treasure 2 makes it's debut at roughly... 2:00AM.
We fall asleep at 4:30. Up to ride at 9:00. Road trip style.
Let's fast forward....
We go to Underground... ride the mini ramp, meet up with Greg. I want to call him Boston Greg. Not because I know another Greg, but because he really is a Boston Greg. The mini is dusty and slick as hell. Depart for Skater's edge for the 3-9 ride session. I land a couple 360s into the foam. I try to take it to the ramp... no success.
Olive Garden for dinner.
Sleep.
Awake.
Stop at Greg's house on way out of town.
Burger King for lunch. Coupons!
On the road... to West Leb.

Here's where things get back to interesting. We return the rental. There is another surprise 27 dollar charge... for... I'm still not clear as to what it was. Colby pays. The phone books is broken out and we try to get ourselves a taxi back to my car which is still safely behind The 99. We dropped the bikes and bags at the car already... so it's just us. We're 3 miles away. The 3 cab companies we talk to say they won't pick us up, it's too short of a drive. What?! I have never heard of such a thing. We tell the mechanic owner dude. Oh yeah, this is also the same guy that wanted to fix my head gasket for me. For $700.00+. Sweet. He gets the 16 year old mechanic from out back to jump in the Taurus and drop us back at The 99. For free! Sweet.
Ok... should be smooth sailing. I'll call AAA, they'll scoop me up and away we'll go. There is a minor snow storm at this point. I call AAA, which I am a HUGE fan of. They have towed me many, many times. It's only worth it if you're a Premium member though, keep that in mind.
Any way, I'm on the phone, I'm broken down... I'm stuck. Help me! "I'm sorry you're account has been cancelled." What? "For non-payment." What? The card expires 2/1/2009. It's the middle of January! Lady! It's 5 degrees out! "I'm sorry. You can buy a membership over the phone, but only a standard one, and it's $65.00 and you'll get the first 5 miles of towing free and then after that it's $4.00 a mile." A MILE!!!
Keep in mind that I don't say any of these things to the lady... I'm speechless.
I say I'll call her back. I look at Colby... he says, umm...
I call Ned. The original card was in his name, etc. He calls the branch, they reinstate the card, because it's not clear to me how it was ever cancelled in the first place really.
I call AAA, again. They tell me my account is cancelled. I tell them it isn't. They say it is. We go back and forth a couple of times. I tell them to call my branch, it's all good. I'm on hold for 10+ minutes. It's 5 degrees.
They come back on the line chipper as a fox. Truck will be there in an hour.
Really? That seems suspiciously fast.
Into The 99 for a beer. Or 4.
50 minutes later, an automated call tells me that the truck has been undeniablly delayed and they will come pick me up as soon as possible. Holy hell, good thing I'm not actually freezing somewhere.
Another beer.
50 more minutes later, a person tells me a truck will be there in an hour. Ok. Another beer please. She tells me that they were having a hard time finding someone to take the call, due to the weather. I didn't know you were able to deny calls. Land of the free and all. Shout out to Jay St. Germain! (My cousin)
Anyway... phone rings again, somebody drawls something or other on the line... I assume it's the truck. It's a mother huge truck for my tiny Fuhgetta. 7 ton capacity!
He rigs the car up... Colby passes out in the back seat, and the dude points out where all the folks have been going off the road that night because of the snow. Sweet.
Turns out, he doesn't even more for AAA. But he works for a guy that works for AAA and something like this. Ummm... what?
Drops the car in my driveway and I'm home.
I really enjoy coming home.
Ali and Jenna and a couple of Ali's friends are at the Pub and Brew.
We take the car there an retell the whole story over some more beer and a dam good burger. Better than Burger King is for sure.

Ah yes...

And if you made this far... dam.
Fuhgetta the Jetta is awaiting a thaw, so that I can unbury it from the snow and pull the head out and get it machined because it's either warped or cracked. Let's hope for warped.
Training. Seems to me that everyone is coming along quite nicely. I am without a crankset for my road bike and without a car to go nordic skiing but more importantly than those fixable excuses... I haven't been able to sleep in weeks, which has proved to be the biggest problem to getting this season started.
Shout out to K. Wolfe and Wolverine Lindine down in FL. Holla!
It's going to be a late blooming season for me, but that's all good. Because it's going to be fun as hell.
Team 2009... seriously, we're still on this? For those that must know... things are shaping up and I will have a solid answer about something, or nothing in 4 more weeks. I know I know... it's nearly the season by then. Just know that on the road you will see me on the hottest bike the side of the Pacific. Jersey's and other details awaiting further.... details?
Oh, and the BMX is in full affect. Need to keep those bike handling skills sharp.
Getting a new DH rig for 2009 has been pushed back to probably 2010 unfortunately... due to a reassessment of... assesses.
Ice cream flavor of the month goes to!!!!
Vanilla. I know I know... it's boring, but sometimes. it's so good! With a little Hershey's Chocolate sauce on top. Love it!
And I also found out there IS garlic ice cream. Gross.
3 extra bucks in your pocket!
1st: Buy a 24 pack of your favorite cheap brew.
2nd: Drink brew. Don't forget to share.
3rd: Invite friends over to drink brew. (you can reverse 2 and 3, depends I suppose)
4th: Make sure they leave their cans and bottles behind.
5th: Reprimand those that think it is fun to remove labels from beer bottles. Destroyers!!
6th: Redeem bottles at nearest bottle redemption center. Cha-Ching!

Back to bed...

New Update

2009-01-25T11:10:00.000-05:00

Is coming... soon.
It will include things like, World Tour update.
Fuhgetta the Jetta update
Training update.
Team for 2009 update.
Ice cream flavor of the month.
And how to make 3 extra cold hard cash dollars each month.

Stayed tuned!

Arctic auto repair

2009-01-01T17:41:00.003-05:00

Helllooooo world,
Happy new year!
2009 is shaping up to be cold, so far as I can judge by these first 18 hours. No need to fear, I can still fix my car even when it's arctic temperatures.
I can no fairly say that I would really enjoy having a garage.

That being said.
Let's go back in time. To Monday of last week. 12/22/2008.
It had snowed on Friday... about a foot of the purist lightest fluffiest champagne powder, EVER.
And then... Sunday it snowed most of the day well into night, more of the same beautiful stuff. The saturday had a high of about 7 so there was no room for melting anywhere. So Sunday I spent most of the day on the phone trying to find someone to cover my Monday shift so I could get to Smuggler's Notch. Success struck with the call of Sully! Sweet relief.
Monday morning I was up at 5:45 shoveling the driveway and warming up the car. The sun was out and I was determined to get to the mountain for first chair.
As it would shape up... after picking up Colby I made a minor wrong turn in Essex that added a little bit of time to our travelling. This would mean we would miss FIRST chair, but we were still there dam earlier. Most of the cool folks from the store were going to be at the mountain that day.
boom, we're dressed and ready to go. We get into line and what happens? Colby forgets his pass in the car. What!? Are you kidding me? Well, I'm not about to wait, so I hop the chair and take my first run solo. Wild!
Not only is it STILL snowing at the mountain, it's snowing HARD at the top.
I take a tree run and am WAIST DEEP in the lightest powder I have ever seen in my life. This was easily the greatest day of snowboarding I had ever seen. Really pretty amazing. I got stuck in a tree well on my first run and Colby had to wait a little longer than expected at the lift, but what was I to do? I was stuck.
That day was awesome.
7 hours at the mountain. Rubino, Ben Coleman, Colby, Eddy and myself. There were others at the mountain that day, but we never ran into them until the parking lot. Too bad.

Moving on!
Tuesday I spent 60% of the day packing and shipping packages from Ebay sales. It was a pain. But, it was money well worth it.
Then I drove south to RI for the Holidays. Sadly, Ali was staying VT with her family. Understandable, but still sad.
Tuesday was a long day to say the least, the roads were ok, unless you were in a rest area, or in the breakdown lane, which were as slick as an NHL hickey rink.
I made it into town around 8:00. Jumped into Providence bike to pick up the rest of the parts to build this:

The new hotness.
Some reports were 24.7 pounds, some were 25.4. Let's split the difference and say 25 even. And yes, it's a left hand drive.

That night it was off to the E&O for some pinball with Kipp and Michelle, BMC for a minute, and Hoshaiah. I was hoping to meet up with Bill from the old school days because it was his birthday, but there was no word from him. Bummer.
Christmas Eve was a slow day, I was nearly run off the road by some maniacal drivers.
It was nutty.
That night it was off the Fez for the secret christmas Eve party. All of these things being fun... but something was missing and that something was Ali. Bliffer.
Christmas was fun. Weird at Ned's with some new folks around and a different atmosphere, but it was fun. Then to seen the extended family which I really haven't seen in over a year. Really, it's been that long? Seeing memere' was great and the rest of the family.
Then Friday morning it was back in the car headed VT, after picking up Colby in Worcester.
And that's when the trouble started.
Maybe it was the extra weight of the christmas gifts, maybe it was the extra weight of Colby. Tough to say. I do know that the head gasket finally quit some 50+ miles south of Burlington. Horse shit.
We limped our way to town, coolant going everywhere, including into the cylinders. Sweet.
Keep your figures crossed that I didn't do any other MAJOR damage to the car. So far, it seems ok. Although today while ripping it apart, I did break a small elbow connecter on an air hose. Lame. If that's the only casualty I will be excited.

So, in the arctic 8 degree and mildly windy weather that kicks off the new year here in VT, I was out the driveway, slowly disassembling my engine to get to the head gasket. As it turn out, it's not that difficult. I lucked out and Colby happened to have the 11mm polygon driver needed for the head bolts. I would work in 20 minute shifts outside, then come in and warm-up again.
With the great aid of a sawed off hockey stick shaft that i found in our attic, I was able to lift the head up enough to slide out the old gasket. There was so much coolant in the cylinders I was scared. A quick phone call to master mechanic Mike also known as 3M (not the brand) eased my concerns. I hijacked a kitchen baster from Ali's kitchen supplies and continued on. A little over an hour later the old gasket was out, the new gasket was in and we were in business. I need to secure some compressed air to clean out the head bolt holes and I'll have it back on the road. Or so I hope. Thermosat my be cooked, heater core may be cooked, head may be warped... but seriously, it's too cold to get any deeper into at this time of year. In the spring I'll do some more thorough work and make sure everything is 100%. Car only has 103000 miles on it.
HUGE thanks to Mike Sam for his invaluable help and advice on how to deal with it.
Also to Colby for having some awesome tools and enjoying the adventure of the drive home just as much as I did on the Friday after Christmas.

So... no news on what's happening for 2009. But it's all looking pretty good. I will be riding that little bike a bunch.

Which leads me to my next point. NEXT week Colby and I are embarking on a mini skate park tour of New England. Stops include, Ski Market/Underground in Cambridge, Skater's Edge, Rye Airfield, Shrewsbury... stay tuned. 6th-8th. Mark your calendars!

Oh, and in that other sort of training, January marks the beginning. So get ready!
Happy New Year!

Snow storm

2008-12-19T22:01:00.001-05:00

3 days of snowboarding successfully under the belt and a 4th on the horizon.

In other news... I went christmas shopping tonight mid blizzard because I figured everything would be less busy. I was right.

Also, I had an ice cream cone for dinner. It is in the single digits outside and with the wind chill I think it's real feel of -7. But really... there's a ton of powder blowing around and it's not that bad.
More importantly.... my ice cream cone actually got HARDER the longer I was outside. I think this was a first. Weird.
Mountain bike ride next week!!
Big River!!!
That is all.

The dentist's chair

2008-12-17T08:25:00.002-05:00

I really am not too fond of going to the dentist...
But I will say that this new dentist I have found (found, as in, was referred by Ali and family) has been really great.
Yesterday I spent 2 hours in the chair. Seriously. WTF.
But... in the end... it was pretty great to have some teeth that will be kicking some ass again.

I got 2 cavities filled, just in the knick of time I was told, as they were on the verge of becoming infected and leading to a couple more root canals. And I saw a couple more, because I am scheduled to have one soon.
I was supposed to have the root canal yesterday, but there wasn't enough time, or the plan changed for some other reason. Instead they drilled a pretty large hole in the infect tooth and stuff it full of medication to kill the infection. I feel better already. And I go back on Thursday (of next week) to get some more cavities filled. Yes there are multiple holes in my skull.

In other news....
I think I have made a decision as to what I am going to be doing for next season, but I'm going to wait until the end of the year, or the middle of January to release any details. But I'm pretty certain I have it all figured out. It's going to be rad.

And! The new hotness... which I was supposed to pick-up last time I was in RI will actually have arrived this time... so expect some photos of the flying grape soon. No pun intended.

It's snowing again... I haven't been on the bike in a long time, and I am selling off everything extra that I have here... so if you need something, pipe up soon because the good stuff is going on Ebay tomorrow.

There isn't too much bike news to spread around, but a big congrats to Mean Justin Lindine for 15th out at CX nationals, pretty dope. And Mr. Nathaniel Ward for 31st respectively. This put Nathaniel on the lead lap, which is more than our other home town hero Mr. Gabe Lloyd can say. Gabe mentioned to me that he at first mistook Trebon as a FedEx delivery truck when he first blew by.
In other cycling news, the rumors are reportedly true, that Jamie Driscol can drink just about has hard as he can race. So kudos to that.
And if you didn't hear, he was 2nd in the Elite race. Which is for real.
And to top of the Burlington, VT killing it moment, lets not forget to mention that Will Dugan WON the collegiate race. Best both Fort Lewis and Lees McRae for the win. Dope-A-Rope.

As for me... I have be riding the little bike, and winning races to lunch most days. I try to keep my accomplishments small in the winter so that the summer brings that much more of a reward.
That and there's 6 more inches of snow outside.

Good day, sir!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2008-12-14T11:07:00.005-05:00

Snow-mas!
So... a couple of posts ago I was looking at a snow bike machine thing... I could use one now. It snowed I think 10 inches the other day. Of fluffy fluffy white powder. And, I learned about a thing called storm reversal. So, just because town is getting hammered with 10 inches of powder, it might actually be raining at the mountain. Which it did. So, lesson learned.
Ali and I had the day off so it didn't really matter, but it was an interesting fact to know.
When I went snowboarding at Smuggler's Notch the other day, I was the only one in the trio without a helmet... looking around, it was clear that I was in the minority on the mountain in general and that snow sports helmet are definitely in vogue.
After I ate it a couple of times I thought... yeah, helmets are a good idea...
Then...
I read this article. http://www.bustedspoke.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=47080
And then I ordered a Giro G10 snow helmet... so my noggin should be nicely insulated and well protected in my future downhill adventures.
I have spent most of the weekend recovering from an unseen illness... I don't know what was wrong but I felt pretty awful.
And!
While I was at work on Thursday, desperately trying to get someone to cover for me so I could go home and rest, to no avail, Ali went and picked up this little guy.

Awesome!
We (really she) decorated the tree that night as I lay on the couch aching and wanting to sleep.
And then! It started to snow...
Just in time for our Friday off from work.
And this is what it looked like.

Also, that is what our house looks like, in case you ever find yourself in VT, you'll know what it is you're looking for.
And... that's pretty much the news from the great white north.
Still no certainty for next year's team, though there are some pretty interesting offers in the mixer at the moment... and seriously, I hope one comes out soon because this is getting to be pretty silly.
Either way, looking forward to 2009 for all sorts of different reasons.
And this final picture, is Ali and the lake. They are good friends. The sun was setting on the Adirondacks as we were getting home...

The goal this winter season has become to get on the mountain 30 times. Only 29 days to go. Once I have a helmet, hopefully I'll be racking the points up a little bit more often.
That is all...
Over and out...
Our christmas tree is awesome!

WWW

2008-12-09T23:27:00.002-05:00

The world wide web...
Or something like it.
A lot has happened over the last few weeks since the last post. Let me provide you with a fun list.
It has finally snowed in town here in Burlington, so when people ask I can finally say yes.
It was 2 degrees yesterday and I rode my bike to work. It is going to be 50 tomorrow.
Last week I went nordic skiing for the first time. On skate skies, it was a ton of fun. I fell down only 3 times.
I also went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in...3 years? Probably more. I need a root canal, a crown replaced, teeth removed and multiple cavities filled. I supposed I was over due eh?
I went to RI this past weekend and saw a bunch of people briefly. It was awesome. You guys are awesome.
I raced my first "B" cyclocross race of the season.
I dropped out of my first cyclocross race of the season.
I went snowboarding for the first time of the season today at Smuggler's Notch. It was pretty awesome.
I am having a large bicycle parts sales starting as soon as you read this. Things include, but are not limited to.
Ultegra 10spd group (everything)
Dura Ace 10s rear der.
LX shifter pods
Deore Shifter pods
Dura Ace 9s rear der.
Rival compact 172.5 crank w/bb
American Classic 420 wheelset
Dura Ace 7800 wheel set
XTR read der
LX rear der
XT rear der
Avid BB5 disc brake set with Avid levers
DT Swiss/Hugi 240 rear hub with bontrager ceramic rim.
And more! All going to get ready for 2009.

Ali and I have been watching The Office non-stop lately. It's pretty ridiculous.
Burlington has been awesome and is still currenly accepting visitors.
I have zero updates as to what am I doing in terms of a team for 2009... but you will be the first to know internet. Actually, truthfully speaking, you will not be the first to know... but I thought it would be a nice touch, that's how they do it in the movies.
Electronical (the video) from Odyssey (the bmx component company) is ridiculous.
I fear I may be over using ridiculous in this post.
Ali and I are going to hang some christmas lights in the next couple of days. I will try and get a picture of them... because they will be nothing short of stellar.
I will be home in RI for christmas and will be venturing into the woods on a mtb ride that week, perhaps more than one... so interested parties please be in touch.

More to come... always more to come.
I am going to hopefully check out a nordic ski race on Saturday.
I am getting my root canal done on next Tuesday (insurance rocks!), and then back to smuggler's Notch on thursday for more shredding, with a little more snow the rest of the mountain will be open and it will be sick.
Oh! And today... I grinded my first rail on a snowboard. Then I linked it together with a grind to grab on the exit. Sweet.

Aa

Slow ride...

2008-11-21T15:48:00.002-05:00

Take it easy.

Don't need one of these yet.

There are so many ideas bouncing around in the hopper these days one of them is bound to come tumbling out any second now.

A couple of quick notes.
Shout-out to Noah for getting the order through for the new hotness. Keep your eyes here for the trade of the century. Out with the old in with the new. Out with the big in with the little. Sweet.

Rhode Island here we come. Ali and I are hitting the road once again and will be bestowing raw awesomeness to the little staters in a city near you soon. Don't blink.

It has been flurrying everyday here and it is crazy. But really calming.

I think that's it.

Blog-o-land!

2008-11-14T10:25:00.002-05:00

Hey Rhode Island!!

Well, that made for a fun, albeit extremely brief trip to the tiny state or yesteryear.
While there I got to stop in at P-Bike, gawk at their LARGE fleet of mountain bikes on display, and check out some 2009 Dura-Ace. As in, the new hotness that no-one has. For better or worse, they always have EVERYTHING. I also picked the last couple of pieces that I needed for my BMX project.
I say project because it's going to be more of an expirement than anything else. A couple of guys at Skirack (work) up here ride the little wheels and even Frate (say "Freighty) has one now, so I thought I would give it a shot. After picking up some parts at the P-bike swap, and buying a wheel on Ebay and a couple of new parts from P-bike, I think I have successfully pieced it all together. It's pretty wild to thing that for (retail) $1000-$1500 will get you the absolute BEST in the BMX world. Imagine if road bikes were like that, crazy!

Anyway, the point of this post was to say that it was awesome to see everyone for half a second. The day went by in a flash, and I left with some rocking new snow tires.
Snow tires?
Yes, snow tires. As in, tires for snow, which rumor has it comes in by the truckload up here in VT. None yet, but it's threatening. We'll see.

That's all, nice to see everyone. Will be back in a few short weeks to throw my hat into the ring at the NBX cross weekend. Although after a poor-to-fair showing at the NBX training race on Wednesday, I think it's become clear that my summer legs have left me. Which is ok. I'm ok with that. My Nordic ski boots are on the mail and by the time they get here it should be time to pick up a new pursuit.

Two things I need the blog-o-lands help with.
1. Currently, I am without a team and/or a sponsor for 2009 and beyond. I have couple of things in the hopper, but don't have anything locked down. I have considered going rogue and being a lone soldier... but again nothing is confirmed. If you have any leads, or potential sponsors in your head, get in touch with me ASAP. Otherwise, we may be looking at an extremely abbreiviated season.

2. I need to make some phone calls about this one, but! I will be making my return to XC mountain bike racing in 2009. With a current rule change at USA Cycling, I will be the proud new owner of an XC PRO license, and really what's cooler than that? So where do I need your help? In rebuilding my XC mountain bike. I have a few race worthy parts remaining, but not many. So if you need to offload some stuff to get your kids through their last year of diapers, I might be able to help.

That's really.
If you want to come ski and/or ride in the great north, get at me! Ali and I would be more than welcome to have you here in the tree house. And there are a bunch of mountain within an hour from our front door.

Well... this is news to me.

2008-11-05T20:37:00.000-05:00

I typed the address of my blog incorrectly and came across this:
http://www.kingoftheapple.blogspot.com/

Who knew!
But I'm going to keep an eye on it for any developments.

Writing

2008-11-03T21:19:00.002-05:00

I used to really enjoy writing... digging into words and tearing them apart.
Devouring books and magazines and cereal boxes and...

I just signed up to write a novel. Seriously... a for real novel. You can do it to, it's national novel writing month.
Do it here. http://www.nanowrimo.org/

And that's the new from Brrrrrr-lington.

Hop, skip and a jump

2008-11-03T08:23:00.002-05:00

What a trip!
Happy Halloween!

Ali and I departed from Burlington early Friday evening. We had it planned that we would get to town early enough to get some dinner in Providence. As it turns out, this plan was a little ambitious.
We saddled up and headed South.
A quick pit stop to say hi to some very small kids (the one Ali works with) and we were rolling. Rolling rolling rolling. Both dressed as cowboys we were ready for a mini-adventure.
Which started with a stop at Wendy's.
I occasionally read Ryan Kelly's blog (www.exit17.com) and he talks a lot about a thing called the Baconator. Which I always assumed was a joke, turns out it's a real thing. A real good thing. It was pretty amazing, but definitely not for the faint of heart. It was huge. And mucho tasty.
Onward!
We pressed futher south, it took AT LEAST 20 miles for my Frosty to melt enough to the point where I could actually drink the dam thing, which was pretty frustrating.
We laughed our way to Providence, arriving at 10 or so. Unsure where the action was at, we headed to the Red Fez. Whiskey for my men, and beer for my horses. Or is it the other way around?
Drinks were had, Jay Carr and a friend came by and we heard of the the Halloween show 2008. Seems to be, from what I can gather, Providence kind of unites on Halloween in a weird and super hip sort of way. An enormous warehouse space in the Wild West side is transformed into an party/show/something else all together space. And partying begins. And really, doesn't ever end.
My friend BSO was playing and I was hoping to see their set, but turns out they didn't hit the stage until 3:30 am. We left the place at 1:30. Rumor has it that the place was still rocking at 5:30 and tale has it that some hipsters are just waking up today.
All in all, it was a pretty rad party. We saw a bunch of folks we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday was Northampton CX #1. And it was also Dolly Parton. I didn't atten Dolly, but Ali did and she said it was amazing. Northampton was a shade shy of amazing, and while trying to appeaze the taunts of a vicious crowd, I jumped the cross bike and proceeded to roll my rear tire. Oops. I got a new wheel out of the pit and promptly got lapped by Jamie Driscol. Who ended up winning both days of the weekend.
It was a super fun time driving out to the race with Scott, who took a break from racing for the day to be a full time heckler. Awesome.
I'm looking forward to going to the NBX cross weekend early in December. Always a good time.

Sunday was Northampton CX #2 (clearly) and the day was going much better than Saturday, until right around 30-35 minutes, on a killer uphill, full of beer tent attendants and CX enthusiasts, my chain fell off (on an uphill!!) and I smashed my left knee into the handlebar. Ow. Ow alot. I stopped. The sting was so severe, I couldn't move my leg, I just stood there in the middle of the hill.
I got the chain back on and slowly pedaled another lap, trying to get some speed back, but it wasn't happening. My day was done. I stopped early, found Ali and we busted out for a dinner detour in downtown Northampton.

All in all the weekend was amazing. It was a blast seeing all my friend and spending time with everyone. I am still feeling bad about missing BMC and Dr. Jones. I will make it up to you guys, I swear!
Pinball was played, beers where drank. Laughs were had. Hot chocolate was spilt (all over my self), ideas were exchanged, smiles were displayed and I think everything more or less kicked some sweet ass. And sour ass too, maybe.

I'll have a 52cm cross bike for sale soon, if anyone needs a frame and fork. It will be cheap. Headset included.
Here's to hoping that the snow stays away just a touch longer.
And here's to Mike Sam in feeling better.
And here's to my friends for being all around generally awesome.

It's happening!!

2008-10-29T14:17:00.002-05:00

Oh no!!
It's here!
That... that... Stuff!

It snowed last night. And while it wasn't exactly AT my house, it was close enough that I saw the reminants of the snow on people;s cars this morning. I guess it's that time.
They called for 1-3" last night, but all we got was rain. One of the bonuses of living RIGHT on the water I guess, takes a little longer to get the snow on our driveway. I'm going to get some snow tires in a couple of weeks, which is a first for me. In Rhode Island, you can just kind of wing it... not here.

Skiing and riding season is also here. Which is pretty exciting. Ali and I are going to look into some backwoods skiing, which is really like, the mountain biking of ski world. It's kind of like nordic skiing, but in the woods on trails and kind of like alpine skiing because you get to come down hills and the skis have edges.
Woot!
Sounds pretty sweet.

This weekend coming up is the Northampton CX weekend, the Dolly Parton black tie affair, the pinball showdown of 2008, and beverage sampling of some of Providence's finer establishment.

Friday is Halloween road trip (yes fully costumed) hopefully trick or treating the entire way to little rhody.
Fun for all!

We made it out apple picking the other day, which is probably going to be one of the last weekends of the year, if not THE last. Local cool kids Matt and Jenna came along and a good time was had by all. No one fell in a mud puddle, the sun was brightly shining, cider donuts were eaten, and the crystal from the center of the earth was located and secured.

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Highland Mountain with Rhode Islanders, M-fer, Fr8te, Team Sam, and new guy Zach. It was, per usual, amazing. I was hitting some lines that I haven't hit before and progressing, which is always a satisfying feeling. There are so many challenges at that mountain, it's inconceivable to be able to ride them all perfectly.
Sweet. I can't wait to go back. November 9th, mark your calenders!
Hopefully Highland will stay dry enough and I can get one more weekend of gnar-gnar in before the snow really falls.

I have a hot new pair of nordic skis and poles lying in wait in the apartment. All I need are a pair of boots and we'll be skating all the way to the moon. Or at the very least, I will be trying to nordic skate, trying to keep up with local fast men Jake Hollenbach (http://www.jakehollenbach.blogspot.com/) and company.

To the books.
I have also started to read Ingfinite Jest (again) and with a renewed vigor for the written word, hope to actually make it through this time. Seriously, have you seen the size of this thing?
David Foster Wallace recently ended his ordeal known as life, and it made me think of the sleeping giant on my book shelf.

See ya'll soon.

And!!!
We're going to bake and apple pie! Soon! And you can't have any unless you come visit!
True story!

Quickly!

2008-10-24T09:35:00.002-05:00

Ok... blogolanders!
Hello, good morning, how are you?
I have been delayed in the blogging because I have been trying to squeeze in as much sunshine as possible, and my severe resting program and fun having is INTENSE!
Since we last caught up, Ali and I hiked up most of Camel's Hump (It's a sizable mountain in the area). It was on the Long trail, and it was pretty dam awesome. the view from some of the cliffs were amazing, and the foliage dam near looked like fire and fireworks, so that was, you know, awesome. We wanted to stay at a shelter (lean-to) up on the trail, but when we got there, it was occupied by a couple of fellows on their way back from a long week of woods living. So... eh, we weren't to keen on sharing the space. Granted they did seem nice and all, but you know. So we hussled back down the trail, making it to the car really in the nick of time. It was SUPER dark. With .25 of a mile to go Ali looked like a black silohouette and that was about it. So, we made it just in time.
Then we drove over to Little River State park. Park of the year 2008. And for good reaason. There are a bunch of tent sites in the park, but there are also these amazing lean-tos that are RIGHT ON the resevoir. Unfortunately, it seems to be that if you don't reserve a lean-to your odds of getting them are LOW. So we headed back to site #19. We stayed there last time, and it was just as welcoming and great this time. Fire was made, smores consumed, and life was great. Yes it is.

Friday I worked.

Saturday was Gloucester #1. I was a little apprehensive about this race as there were going to be some real deal heavy hitters. And it's a known fact that other guys have been training much more than myself.
So... We start, it's unbelievablly dusty. Like living in the midwest can't see more than a couple of feet in front of you dusty. Ouch. I ride ok... I crack the top 25 at some point in the race and then fade back to 27th towards the end. I get lapped...
bummer.
However, I got lapped with 1/10th of a lap to go and Trebon comes by me and says "Sorry, Dude." Which really was pretty entertaining.

Then I stood around in parking lot waiting for Gabe to glue a tire. then we drove an hour to Newton and ate some pizza. Josh Jamner helped Gabe and Justin and myself find a floor to sleep on, so a big thanks there. It was a floor, it smelled like a floor, and it served it's purpose.

Sunday, Gabe and I headed back to Gloucester leaving the house at like 6:40. We set up the Echappe tent (www.racewheelrentals.com) and proceeded to hang out.
It was a nice day.
The run up they had for day 2 was not so nice.
It was gnarly. Like gnar gnar gnarly.
They roto-tilled a hillside where some bushes used to be and filled in dirt at the bottom where a rock wall was. It was super steep, super loose, and super hard.
Thankfully we only did it 8 times. Ouch.
I rode a lot better on day two. But... finished 31st. I was up to 20th at one point, which is spectacular, and then with 2 laps to go the wheels came off the wagon and I went backwards in a hurry. So that was kind of a bummer. Even though I was 31st... I didn't get lapped. Sweet!!!

So... that's 3 for 4 in the not getting lapped catergory, pretty rad.

Off to work, more news later.

Holy hell

2008-10-06T14:06:00.002-05:00

Ok... so as I stated, I have been skateboarding again.
And I also mentioned that I might run a 5K on Sunday. I did. I finished, barely. It was not until this year that I realized what really happens to a cyclist's body. It really isn't good for too much else other than cycling and eating.
My left calf and hamstring are so tight and sore from skating that I struggle to walk normally. And my right IT band was screaming after a mere 2 miles yesterday. My heart rate maybe peaked out around 100 BPM. But it was the fastest I could go.
I ran with Jake Hollenbach and his lady friend Helen, officially from this point forward, known as The Mayor. Anytime I have ever been anywhere with Jake he knows 2-3 people. Granted it's a small town, but come on.
We posted a staggering time of 24 minutes. WTF? In high school I was doing 16:30-17:00 minutes for a 5K. Amazing.
My legs don't feel too terrible from the run today, but they don't feel fantastic either.
Following the run and some good stretching, Ali and the gang were at Shelburne Farms (where the 5K was held) and they had suffered a mishap. The front wheel of the Chariot (super stroller) had fallen off. Tragedy strikes! Small people were strewn all of the fields of the farm and the cows were a clatter with gossip of what just took place.
Fortunately, I saw them as I was headed home to shower and take a nap. I was able to reattach the wheel and they were back in action. I managed to crawl back into my Jetta and struggle home to take a bath and a nap before work.
Then I worked a HUGE 5 hours, and inched my way home to fall asleep at 8:30.
I then proceeded to sleep for the next 12 hours. No joke!

Phew.
I feel rested and recovered today, with a sore leg and a bruised ego and excited about our upcoming backpacking trip and Gloucester races. Weather for Thursday is 67 and sunny!

A

Fun stuff!

2008-10-04T18:25:00.002-05:00

It's cross season, and that means... fun stuff!
Lots of it.
Last night Ali was babysitting the 3 wee ones, and I was invited!!
Tons of fun was had by all, including Hungry the (rapping!) hippo. Snacks were eaten, I missed pie unfortunately and there was plenty of laughter to go around. PLENTY!
Then today started with a Cheerio fight (at least that's what I was hoping for) Instead everyone calmly ate their breakfast and get ready for the day.
Pumpkin patch adventures lay ahead for some, while work lay ahead for others (me).
Off to work.
But! To my surprise and excitement I got a personal lunch delivery from the quartette! Fantastic! It was pretty awesome. And then Eddy asked me if they were my kids and how come they all had blonde hair. Weird!

Craziness at the store. I am amazed at how much people spend on bundles and arm fulls of clothes at a time. Insane!
Parents weekend... crazy city all around.

I started skateboarding again... and while this may seem hip and trendy (maybe it is, I don't know) it seems so much easier than I remember. Everything feels really fluid and fun. I ate it pretty hard a couple times today, but things are coming back slowly that I had forgotten that I even knew how to do. And I was hitting things today that I don't ever remember having dialed. Awesome!

I might run a 5K tomorrow morinng.
Then it's backapcking overnight on thursday and then Gloucester saturday and sunday. I'm training... get ready!

More fun on the way for sure!

Oh, and if you want to visit, come soon because it already snowed in the mountains this past week. No seriously, it did. Snow... in the mountains. Like, white stuff actually on the ground.

The coffee bean has landed

2008-09-30T07:40:00.002-05:00

It has been awhile...
I don't remember where we left off.

GMSR is long gone. Tour of Catskills has finished weeks ago.
And then...
Ali and I have been kickin' ass ever since.
There was an apple picking extravaganza, running, walking, hiking, eating, apple crisping, laughing and general all-around funness.

Echappe Equipment (www.racewheelrentals.com) has been also kicking ass, so, check it out.

I bike world news... I have been dreaming of getting another big squishy bike. I have also been riding the Chase a lot and getting pretty smooth at the local skate parks. And dirt jumps. Which is always fun. I wanted to brush-up on my skills for Highland in a few weeks. I am pretty pumped for Highland.

I am also now currently accepting all offers for the 2009 cycling season.

And as a nod to my past, I did a little skateboarding the other night and holy hell was it fun. I forget... and there is nothing quite like it.
Next week is backpacking trip #1 of the year. I know... it's a little late. But, Ali just rounded out the gear she needed and we are on our way in the Vermont wilderness.

This past weekend, for all of you who decided to stay home, missed some fantastic racing weather and super hard race courses at the Green Mountain Cyclocross weekend. This is one of 2 events that happen throughout that year that are within an hour of my house. This weekend being about 25 minutes away, 35 on velocipede.
Oh yeah, and I went to Interbike, For the first time. It only took 10 years to get there. Holy overwhelming zoo of bicycle. It was pretty intense. Too much stuff. I crashed hard at the Industry Cup Race and did some unhealthy damage to my Cannondale. Only time will tell just how rough it really is. It arrives in a day or two.
Actually, I wasn't entirely sure it had been picked up yet. I just checked on UPS.com though and it is on it's way. It sat in the casino from Friday to Monday so I was a little nervous.

Anyway, the cross races were fantastic, and not only did I have a blast riding the bike, but I also raced fairly well. I thought. Saturday I was pretty wrecked from travelling and from the crash on Thursday night. So I was far from 100%. I started conservatively and picked my way through eventually getting as high up as 16th or so and then fading pretty hard back to 20th. However, this marks the first Elite cross race I have ever finished on the lead lap. Nice.
Saturday's race was overshadowed by Ali's birthday. That night lead us to a ridiculous dance party/show/thing by Dan Deacon, which was amazing. A little heavy on the crowd participation, but TONS of fun. Then out afterward with some friends and fun all around. I momentarily distracted by Golden Tee the video game, and made it on the leader board some how. Weird.

Sunday's race was at the same venue with a different course, as you can guess.
It was another uphill start and in the deep grass. Fearing getting bogged down, I started in the little ring. WRONG. I was instantly at the back. Last wheel. Holy hell. It took me a lap to regain my composure and not panic and then I started on my mission of improving on yesterdays' 20th. I hop skipped, lunged, and attacked my way forward. The last 2 laps I was locked in a ferocious battle with a guy whose real name is Zoltan. Seriously. Turns out he is a former national champion from Budapest and has ridden at CX worlds. So we attack each other and play games for the final two laps. He bobbled on the log ride and I attacked hard, but he hung on. Then through the woods I gassed it and attacked up the long climb and he was still with me on the following descent.
So, learning from Nathaniel's mistake from the previous day, I lead through the final chicane and had 2 meters on the exit. I opened my sprint and was able to hold him off. Holy bananas! That was awesome. 14th! Verge Series points! A call-up at Gloucester, albeit a 3rd row call up, but still! Freaking sweet!

And then ate Al's and life was great.

Next race, Gloucester. Following hiking extravaganza, and s'more mania.

Almost old news by now

2008-09-09T07:34:00.002-05:00

The GMSR road race was nothing short of spectacular. Even though this year, it was short.
The traditional professional loop sends us up and over Bethel Mt. Rd and then back towards Middlebury Gap. Turns out there was some construction on Bethel Mt. road and we wouldn't be headed that way. Then, as fate would have it, a couple of weeks before the scheduled start, a rain storm, literally washed away Middlebury Gap. Well, I guess not the gap per se, but certainly a good chunk of Route 125 that would lead us over Middlebury Gap.
Anyway... the race was rerouted to Brandon Gap a few miles further South and about 7 miles long. It's 7 miles of shallower climbing, which for a training ride is great, it's easier. In a race, it's a double edged sword. You can probably make it over, but it's going to be fast as hell.

So the race starts, and with all the time gaps within seconds of each other, everyone wants a chance to win. There are relentless attacks. We're covering everything insight because Eneas is 3rd overall and only a handful of seconds out of the jersey. Suddenly, a break goes, containing 4 guys. I don't really know who's in it, but I know I need to cover it, at this point I"m gassed from working so hard already. It's been a whopping 5 miles of the impeding 75.
I jump out, 1 rider comes with me and we're cruising. I'm killing myself to get across what seems like a small gap and it's taking forever. We get there. It was like walking into the back room of a restaraunt where you're not supposed to be. Or overhearing someone telling a secret.
The shit had just hit the fan. The break contained:
The leader's jersey
2 riders from Team Race (1 of which was in the top 5)
The sprinters jersey (briefly)
The KOM jersey
Eric from Fiore Di Fruitta
And another super strong Canadian and they are on a mission. I mean, everyone wound out in the 53x11. Holy hell it was fast. I wasn't supposed to work, but the only way to stay tacked onto this move was to roll through. And I knew I needed to out sprint the yellow jersey at the bonus sprint to take away the bonus seconds on the road.
Boom, we hit the sprint, 200m to go and the Fruitty gasses it, I jump a little late and grab 2nd. The jersey apparently hung on for 3rd. I can only block so many places right.

Miles and miles later. In the ball park of 20 miles from when the breakaway started. The calvalry arrives. I look over my should to see Karl Menzies (Health Net), Dominique Perisian (canadian fastman), Eneas (teammate!!), Will (teammate!!) and a couple of other real deal super men.

Hold your breath because someone just poured gasoline on the fire...

Green Mountain Mayhem

2008-09-04T08:02:00.002-05:00

Alright alright alright...
A lot has happened. So much so, I don't even remember most of it. Lost of traveling in the last few weeks, and still some more to come. Cross your fingers and close your eyes, waiting for the Cat 1 upgrade approval so I can mix-it-up down at Univest. The team is running on fumes right now. There are multiple smashed wheels, 1 punctured lung, 1 broken hand, 2 fractured ribs, 1 severe rope burn, and the list goes on.
I though, am feeling nothing short of tired and fulfilled. The season has been an epic roller coaster up to this point. There were these great glimmers of racing, and some horrible flashes of mistakes. That's racing right.
Green Mountain Stage Race... we came within 3 seconds of taking the overall lead. And when I say it was a hard fought battle, it was severely hard. No rest for the wicked, or something like that.

The break down goes like this:
Day 1 (Thursday before the TT) Kyle and some guys go for a short ride to open the legs and scope out the road conditions for the upcoming days of battle. Everything looks good. What DOESN'T look good is the designated parking area for the time trial. They want us to park at Sugarbush, ride DOWN the access road, then race the TT, then ride 6 miles back to Sugarbush, UP the access road. This is no good. So, he bribes a homeowner with some yard space to spare about 200 meters from the start line. We park the team car and set-up all the trainers and break out the cooler and have a good ol' tailgating party, warm-up style. We were in the shade and it was alllllright.
The race:
A few weeks prior we had a GMSR mini camp where everyone came up north and we pre-rode the courses and practiced the TT. On race day, I shaved 50 seconds off of my camp time. In part due to some hot wheels from Echappe Equipment. Also, if any needs some wheels on the cheap, end of the season sale is fast approaching. Anyway, 50 seconds faster than camp, sub 15:00 and still I was 1:20 behind. Well... that was that. Eneas however went fast enough to grab 4th place, Craig was in the teens somewhere and Justin was top 25. We were off to a great start.

Circuit Race:
Fast and furious! 2 Fast 2 Furious! I'll have you know, Craig hates that movie. It was fast, the roads were narrow and soon into the race a break goes up the road with Eneas and Will and some other heavy hitters. Well, they put a minute into the field and Gabe and Craig and I sit back and cool our heels and let things develop. Holy potatoes batman!! The break come back over the KOM and we all come together on the long fast decent. Hmm... Well. Time to make the magic happen. Attack, cover, counter, repeat. It's a fast rolling 10 mile run-in to the finish and it was on. Like the Discovery Channel in Justin Lindine's living room. Things are tense, a crash is brewing, the field is slowing. Trouble! I grab Gabe and we charge off the front of the field, holding a 2 man time trial for a few miles. We're gobbled up on the last big roller and the last thing I see is the ugliest saddle in the race. Troy Lee designs Selle Italia SLR, also known as Justin Wolverine Lindine. He blast off the front, pulls Will Duggan within and 3 others. They're doing mach 4000 and they stick it for the final 2 miles, just grabs 5th and scoops some bonus seconds, and the field was on their wheels with not a meter to spare. I mean seriously, they were caught with no room to move. It was pretty awesome.
I suffered an extreme case of "cross-gut" for my efforts, but was happy with the outcome.

Tomorrow's edition: the road race.

No really

2008-09-03T21:29:00.003-05:00

A new update coming soon.

After I recover from the secret 5th stage of the GMSR.

What is going on...

2008-08-13T10:24:00.002-05:00

No really, what is going on?

A couple of weekends ago, the team and myself headed to VT for a mini-training camp. I think is the closest event we have done to where I live yet. So that was nice. We rode our bikes a lot, jokes were told, a teammate is getting married next year, and it rained. Holy hell did it rain. Oh yeah, and Gabe took a minor tumble on our way down Middlebury gap. Ouch.

Following that fun weekend... I'm not sure what else happened.
Nothing too exciting. I remember feeling not 100% and plenty more rain. So much more rain in fact, that route 125 leading up Middlebury gap is gone. Literally. It has washed away. So the road race which was originally shortened to just the Middlebury Gap loop do to OTHER road construction on Bethel Mt. Road has again been restored to a promising length. The race will no travel further South to Brandon Gap of Killington Stage Race fame and then back to App Gap for the big finale. Exciting stuff.

Hum ho...
Ali went away to the beach this weekend I was jealously here in Vermont. I was unable to secure the right days off from work and had a pretty important race to head to in CT. She got some super sun, and I collected a nice set of abrasions. Fair deal? I THINK NOT!
After some serious gas up the climb at Tokeneke, a fellow racer must have been cross eyed and swerved and took out my front wheel. We were going 30+, but I'm really not that banged up. The bike took most of the damaged and was left in a twisted pile on the side of the road. I stood there patiently waiting for SRAM to arrive... and 4 minutes later they did. The field was in tatters coming off the climb and the SRAM car was at the back of the action. Oh well. Another 2-3 minutes of restoring my bike to rideable condition (thanks SRAM!) and I was off. Albeit 7 minutes behind the lead group that I just crashed out of. I took note of all damage and pressed on. Chasing and eating and drinking and just narrowly missing catching the last group on the road before the big descent. Well... that was the race for me. Plibbers.
However, improving upon last years 1st and 3rd place finish. The team managed to sweep the podium and collect the lone KOM prize. F-ing sweet right?

Other than that... Ali and I have been kicking ass and taking names here in Vermont, eating the best dam blueberries this side of the universe and I have developed an unsatiable appetite for corn on the cob and red plums. Holy guacamole are the plums good right now.

Um... We're also in the slow slow process of thinking about moving, into a tad bit more spacious of an apartment... soooo if anyone wants to move to VT, now's your chance. We can split the cost and start a club. No, not a commune... a club. Of awesomenessitude.

For those that have asked... these are the only known pictures of the animal... but here it is...

Holy macaroni

2008-07-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

Let me begin by clarifying... Ali and I don't "really" have a tree house, but often times out apartment seems like it is one.

Further more... we rode to the grocery store for the first time the other day, it was awesome! Carrying my share of the load in the messenger bag was a bit much, and I promptly looked into ordering some pannier bags the next day at work. Turns out that "grocery" style bags from EVERY manufacturer available from QBP is sold out. Seriously? Well that's pretty awesome, right?
The trip was a success, and the ride was surprisingly shorter than I would have imagined.
Though, I'm not sure Ali will want to come with me next time, as Boston Matt (from work) has added some festive... "sound effects" to my River Bike.

Racing has been on hold this past weekend, and won't resume until the 10th of August. It was suggested that I go and do the weekly, or almost weekly, time trial around here, but I was working.
And that is... that.

The Circle A...
Where to begin... I apologize for not having photos of it just yet... but I'm afraid it may break my camera.
No... seriously, holy bananas.
I'm not sure how to phrase it... I wish that BMC could be at my shop one day and see the reaction the bike generates from customers in the store. Everyone has in Providence has seen a Circle A and/or owns one of their own, and I think, maybe, takes their stunning for granted. If you remove the bike from it's home, where it's known and seen regularly and you show it to people who have never heard of the Circle A, it stops them in their tracks. The bike has generated more questions than I have time to answer.
Serrotta buffs, vintage bike buffs, all these bike nerds are left standing there, crouching down and grinning like kids in a chocolate store.
There have been guesses that the frame alone retails for $7000. $7000!!!! Holy shit! That is a lot of money.
During the Tour De France we had a few regular customers come in everyday to watch the tour on the big screen TV. Everyday for 3 weeks they would come through the door and see the same bikes, same faces, nothing changed. And then Circle A #150 came on the scene...
Hanging from the ceiling in what is affenctionately called VIP parking, was the bike. The entrance to the store is 60 feet away and people noticed it from across the store. They would skip the tour for a few minutes to investigate it.
Generally the situation is like this:
"Whose bike is this?"
"It's mine." I smile and wave or something...
"May I?" They asked and point to the bike, jesturing to take it down."
::Gingerly lifting the bike off it's hook::
::Look of confusion as if the bike is still being lifted by the hook::
"Wow, what is this made out of?"
"Steel."
"...holy shit... How much does it weigh?" Lifting the bike up and down
"16.4, with that clunky saddle."
"...holy shit..."
::crouching down to further examine the bike and the lugs and lug lining::
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."

There has been a lot of off the cuff profanity in the store lately. Thank BMC.
Then they'll gingerly put it back up on it's hook.
Then a co-worker will come by and point some other neglected to be noticed details, BB cutout, Anchor cutout, tiny chain peg, seat mast... followed by.
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."
"...holy shit..."

One of the big buyers in the store took the bike up stairs and measured it from every angle, grinning and scratching his head and comparing it to Serotta. (He REALLY like Serotta). Then he gingerly asked if he could ride it some time... I told him I would think about it, but that would probably be fine.
A guy came in the other day and took a picture of it. Came into a bike store and took a picture of a bike hanging from the ceiling. A bunch of people have said things along the lines of, "It's really sleeper, huh?" or "Wow, you'd really have to know bikes to know what you're looking at."
And therein lies the beauty of the bike.
It's not just a bike.
And it's not like the newest and greatest LOOK, or TIME or ORBEA, all sexy in their own right. But everyone can see that their nice bikes, they "look" like nice bikes. They're the Ferraris of the bike world.
But this Circle A... it's something different. It's a beautiful bike for bike lovers. The details the details the details. You can see it in the eyes of it's observers. There's a little glint... it makes people laugh and remember that beautiful thing that bikes are. Simple, elegant and man's last great invention.

I didn't want to write about the bike to boast, though I am proud to be it's owner and I could go on for days... but I'll spare you.
No, I wanted to draw attention to a beautiful thing.
A product of craftsmanship and dedication and effort and time and blood and sweat and maybe even frost bite. I think sometimes when we get too close to a certain thing and maybe we don't see just how amazing it really is. And it takes other people to point it out, maybe not even directly. And that's so refreshing... and you look at it and it's beautiful and inspiring and uplifting... and I"m not even sure I"m talking about my bike any more. But that's the point.
It can change your outlook on life.
In closing... Briand Chapman is extremely gifted and I hope hope hope that he can continue to do what he very apparently loves to do because it is amazing work.

Not to mention that the bike rides absolutely amazing. But that will be for another post...

The short list

2008-07-22T07:57:00.002-05:00

Here is a short list of things that I enjoy:
Riding bikes
living in vermont
my treehouse
Well made lattes
good cookies
grilling
sunshine
making grand plans

But really... I really enjoy riding bikes. This morning was one of those rides where everything was "on." I think I hardly rode an hour... granted I did stop for the finest latte in all of Vermont... but it was great. The pedals felt like they were pushing themselves and the world just rolled on by.

I am excited for... well just life in general.

Circle A tomorrow!!!!

Mt. Hotty (as in... it was HOT!)

2008-07-21T21:06:00.003-05:00

Holy moly baloney was it hot at Mt. Holly.
101 degrees, stiff wind, and the pace was hot hot hot. While I still can't find results anywhere online, let's guess and say there were 120 starters. Of those 120 starters... 50 or so finished.
I was in the finishing group. So, check that one off the list.
It's Monday now and I'm still feeling the effects of riding in that kind of heat. Holy hell.

It was the get blasted by the hair drier in the face kind of heat.
The, you're barbecueing outside and the flames jump up and lick your arms kind of heat.
The, it's already hot out and you've decided to bake some brownies and then you open the oven kind of heat.
The, you're making pasta and pouring the still boiling water into the sink and melt your face off kind of heat.

I mean really... the shit was hot!
On the up side, my legs felt good and for the first part of the race I was active at the front and was able to jump of the front a couple of times and cover some moves. Why was I covering moves... because Eneas was in the race and he was on form and he would go on to take 2nd behind a very fast punchy Colavita rider. So... let's just say mission accomplished. J Gabe Lloyd did in fact ride with the green machine on Saturday though he DID NOT get to play lead-out man for the day. Too bad. It was a fun event to go to.
The race went by the oldest continually used prison on U.S. soil interesting. The winner of the race was given a key to the prison. Like one of those big silly looking "key to the city" style keys. I wonder if he ever gets caught for doping if he can use it as a get out of jail free key. I'm not saying he's doping... just it would be funny. Like, "yeah, but I have this key!"
I digress...

You can see photos of the race on cyclingnews.com, here http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2008/jul08/mtholly08/gallery-mtholly08

In other news... the grill is still kicking ass, but tonight we had pasta, because I am smoked tired and Ali was feeling ill. Ploop.

Wednesday is Circle A day. Holy moly am I excited. The headset FINALLY arrived today and that completes the parts list for the bike... or so I hope. I'm pretty sure I have everything for it. At the very least i have all the important pieces. Ali and I are going to cruise down the Lil' Rhody tomorrow night post Ski Rack fun. Which means we'll be leaving here around 7:30. Be on the look out.

Also... while driving back from CT on Saturday the Jetta averaged 35.7 MPG. Holy shit bite your tongue, true freaking story. I almost peed when I did the math. Insane. But in that good sort of way.
I remember thinking of some funny things I wanted to write here in el' blogo when I was driving home... but all thoughts are elluding me at the moment. Oh well.

Upcoming schedule looks something like
This week: super trip with Ali!
Weekend... work
Next work... work, hopeful mountain bike ride
next weekend... secret Targetraining camp...

Followed by... possible beach extravaganza!
Exacting revenge on the Tokeneke road race. Well, not really revenge, more like defending Targetraining's win from last year.
then...Albany RR and Blount Seafood crit
then... something special
then... GMSR
then... Univest. Holy shit we're going to Univest. Biggest amateur race in the country. Or something like that. HUGE!
then... long nap
then... adventure!!!!

Till next time...
Keep your eyes pealed for the completed Circle A and some fun stories to go along with it... I hope.

A

delay of game

2008-07-13T17:04:00.001-05:00

Water park ambitions rained out...

Bummer.
But Ali and I finally got a grill!
BBQ glazed chicken is out there roasting right now!